Powder to powder: Feds hunt Olympic snowboarder-turned-drug-kingpin
A former Olympic snowboarder has now reached the podium of the FBI’s most wanted list. Ryan Wedding, 43, is accused of running a transnational drug trafficking network and orchestrating multiple murders.
Wedding accusations
“The former Canadian snowboarder unleashed an avalanche of death and destruction, here and abroad,” Matthew Allen, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Los Angeles Field Division, said.
The FBI said Wedding ran a drug trafficking network that routinely moved hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico and Southern California to other parts of the U.S. and Canada.
Wedding’s alleged second-in-command, fellow Canadian Andrew Clark, was arrested in October 2024 by Mexican authorities. Clark was one of 29 fugitives Attorney General Pam Bondi announced arrived in the U.S. from Mexico earlier this month.
Violence accusations
The indictment against the two men accuses them of orchestrating the killing of two members of an Ontario, Canada, family in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment. The two also allegedly orchestrated the murder of another person in May 2024 over a drug debt.
“The RCMP is committed to working with our international partners in the fight against transnational criminals,” Liam Price, Director General, Royal Canadian Mounted Police International program, said. “It’s imperative that Ryan Wedding faces justice for the charges against him. We will continue to stand with and support our U.S. and Mexican partners in this and other investigations to protect the public.”
Wedding also allegedly ordered the killing of a witness in Medellin, Colombia, set to testify against him in a federal drug trafficking case. Wedding reportedly tracked down the witness with crowdsourcing, then hired shooters who killed him while at a restaurant.
Deepak Paradkar, also arrested in this case and who went by the alias @Cocaine_Lawyer, reportedly told Wedding that killing the witness would make the case go away.
“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,” Akil Davis, the Assistant Director of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said. “The alleged murders of his competitors make Wedding a very dangerous man, and his addition to the list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, coupled with a major reward offer by the State Department, will make the public our partner so that we can catch up with him before he puts anyone else in danger.”
The reward for information leading to Wedding’s capture is $15 million.
Drug network
FBI Director Kash Patel called Wedding a “modern-day Pablo Escobar,” although Escobar was more known for his love of soccer instead of snowboarding.
Authorities say Wedding, Clark and other criminals shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine through their network based out of Canada from January 2024 to August 2024.
The drugs were transported from Mexico to the Los Angeles area, where they were stored in stash houses. The cocaine was then shipped to Canada using long-haul semitrucks.
Bondi said Wedding’s organization imports about 60 metric tons of cocaine per year, weighing about as much as 40 cars.
“Wedding collaborates closely with the Sinaloa Cartel, a foreign terrorist organization, to flood not only American but also Canadian communities with cocaine coming from Colombia,” Bondi said at a press briefing Wednesday covered by ABC News.
Who is Ryan Wedding?
Investigators believe Wedding is currently in Mexico but said he could be in the U.S., Canada, Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica or somewhere else entirely.
Wedding is described as 6 ‘3”, 240lbs, with blue eyes and brown hair.
Wedding competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. While now on the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted list, his Olympic best was 24th in the giant parallel slalom snowboarding event.
He was first linked to crime four years later when he and another competitive snowboarder were linked to a house in British Columbia with 6,800 marijuana plants in it, but no one was charged.
Wedding was first arrested in 2009, allegedly working for a drug lord to drive from Vancouver to California to buy 24 grams of Colombian cocaine. He spent four years in prison.
Wedding’s aliases include “El Jefe,” “Giant,” “Public Enemy,” “James Conrad King,” and “Jesse King.”
“He earned the name ‘El Jefe’, becoming boss of a violent transnational drug trafficking organization,” Allen said. “Now, his face will be on ‘The Top 10 Most Wanted’ posters. He’s unremitting, callous and greed-driven. Today’s announcement beams an even brighter searchlight on him. We ask that you help us find him.”
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
