Olympic snowboarder accused of running murderous drug trafficking network now on FBI’s most wanted list
A former Olympic snowboarder who has been accused of running a transnational drug trafficking operation that is also alleged to have killed four people is now on the FBI’s list of 10 most wanted fugitives.
Ryan Wedding, 43, was previously charged with running the drug smuggling operation, which the FBI said in a news release “routinely” shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California, into Canada and across other locations in the United States.
The FBI has also accused Wedding of orchestrating a number of murders in relation to the drug smuggling scheme.
“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,” said Akil Davis, the assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office. Wedding represented Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
Authorities believe Wedding may be living in Mexico and said he should be considered armed and dangerous.
The State Department is offering a $10 million reward for any information that leads to Wedding’s arrest, and the FBI is offering an additional $50,000 for information that leads to his apprehension, arrest and extradition.
Davis said Wedding’s “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.”
In June, Wedding was charged in an indictment out of California with running a continuing criminal enterprise, murder and conspiring to possess, distribute and export cocaine. His “second in command,” Andrew Clark, was also charged, according to the FBI.
A superseding indictment in September added an attempted murder charge for Wedding. Clark, who faces similar charges, was arrested in Mexico in October, the FBI said.
An attorney for Clark did not immediately reply to a request for comment sent Thursday evening.
According to the superseding indictment, Wedding, Clark and a number of other people “conspired to ship bulk quantities of cocaine” using a Canada-based drug transportation network from around January to August 2024.
The organization Wedding and Clark are accused of running “resorted to violence — including multiple murders — to achieve its aims,” the FBI said in the news release.
According to the superseding indictment, the pair ordered two members of an Ontario family killed in November 2023 “in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment,” the FBI said. A third family member survived the shooting but sustained serious injuries.
They are also alleged to have ordered one person to be killed in May 2024 over a drug debt, the FBI said. Clark and another defendant are also charged in the murder of another victim in Ontario in April 2024.
If they are convicted, Wedding and Clark both face a mandatory minimum penalty of life in prison for the continuing criminal enterprise charge, the FBI said.
