The FBI has added former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding to its Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list due to serious charges including conspiracy to export cocaine, running a criminal enterprise, and murder. The U.S. State Department is offering a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest, alongside the FBI’s $50,000 incentive. Wedding’s drug trafficking network reportedly moved hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia to Canada and the U.S., and he is accused of orchestrating multiple murders. He is believed to be in Mexico, possibly protected by the Sinaloa cartel, having fled since October 2023.
On Thursday, the FBI revealed that Ryan Wedding, a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder, has been placed on its Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list. He is facing multiple charges in the U.S., including conspiracy to export cocaine, operating a criminal enterprise, and murder.
The Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs at the U.S. State Department has announced a $10 million reward for information leading to the 43-year-old’s capture, in addition to the FBI’s existing $50,000 reward for further details regarding Wedding.
Wedding is alleged to have led a drug trafficking network that routinely transported hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California, into Canada and various locations in the United States. He is also implicated in multiple murder schemes linked to these drug operations, and is reportedly known by several aliases, such as “El Jefe,” “Public Enemy,” and “Giant.”
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During a press conference in Los Angeles on Thursday, officials indicated that Wedding is believed to be residing somewhere in Mexico, potentially under the protection of the Sinaloa cartel.
According to Cart Weiland, a senior official at the State Department, Wedding has taken a downward spiral since his snowboarding success, stating that he “went downhill — in a different kind of way,” as reported by the Toronto Star.
Weiland remarked, “He traded snow for another kind of powder.”
FBI
Prosecutors indicated in a recent letter to a Toronto court that Wedding has been evading capture since October, when he was first identified as the leader of a significant criminal network collaborating with Mexican cartels and involved in several murders in Ontario.
Andrew Clark, Wedding’s alleged second-in-command, was captured by Mexican naval forces in October. Clark, 34, was one of 29 individuals linked to Mexican drug cartels who were transferred to the United States earlier this year under the oversight of Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Alongside the drug trafficking allegations, both Wedding and Clark face accusations related to the murder of four individuals in Ontario in November 2023 over a stolen drug shipment, with two of those murders being attributed to a “mistaken identity shooting.”