Former Olympian Ryan Wedding Wanted by FBI for Drug Trafficking and Multiple Murders.
A former Olympian has found himself on the FBI’s 10 most-wanted fugitives list, accused of running a massive international drug trafficking operation.
The FBI announced on Thursday that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has approved a staggering $10 million reward for the capture of Ryan Wedding, a former member of Canada’s snowboarding team at the 2002 Winter Olympics.
At a press conference, Akil Davis, head of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, stated that Wedding was heavily involved in smuggling large quantities of cocaine from Colombia, moving it through Mexico and Southern California before distributing it to Canada and various cities across the United States.
“Wedding wasn’t just moving drugs,” Davis explained. “He orchestrated multiple murders and even an attempted assassination as part of his criminal operations.”
The charges against Wedding are serious. He’s facing indictments for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, conspiracy to export cocaine, continuing criminal enterprise, and murder linked to drug-related crimes.
“Ryan Wedding went from shredding powder on Olympic slopes to pushing powder cocaine on the streets of the U.S. and Canada,” Davis added.
The FBI is pulling out all the stops to bring Wedding to justice. Alongside the $10 million reward from the State Department, the FBI has added another $50,000 for information leading to his arrest.
Wedding is described as 6-foot-3, weighing around 240 pounds, and known to use several aliases, including “El Jefe,” “Giant,” “Public Enemy,” and “James Conrad King.”
Authorities have already made progress in the case. One of Wedding’s alleged associates, Andrew Clark, was arrested in October 2024. Clark is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Arizona on similar federal charges this coming Monday.
The FBI is urging anyone with information on Wedding’s whereabouts to come forward, emphasizing that bringing him to justice is a top priority.
