A former Olympic athlete has landed on the FBI’s 10 most-wanted fugitives list for allegedly masterminding a sprawling international drug trafficking operation. The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced Thursday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has authorized a $10 million reward for information leading to the capture of Ryan Wedding, who represented Canada’s snowboarding team at the 2002 Winter Olympics.
At a press conference, Akil Davis, chief of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, detailed Wedding’s alleged criminal activities, stating that he “routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California, to Canada and other locations in the United States.”
Davis further alleged that Wedding orchestrated multiple murders and an attempted assassination as part of his criminal enterprise. Wedding faces serious federal charges including conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, conspiracy to export cocaine, continuing criminal enterprise, and murder in connection with drug crimes.
“Wedding went from shredding powder on the slopes at the Olympics to distributing powder cocaine on the streets of U.S. cities and in his native Canada,” Davis remarked.
Beyond the State Department’s substantial $10 million reward, the FBI is offering an additional $50,000 for information that leads to Wedding’s arrest. According to the FBI, Wedding stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 240 pounds, and uses several aliases including “El Jefe,” “Giant,” “Public Enemy,” and “James Conrad King.”
Authorities recently made progress in the case with the October 2024 arrest of Andrew Clark, one of Wedding’s alleged associates. Clark is scheduled to be arraigned Monday on similar federal charges in U.S. District Court in Arizona.
