A former Olympian has landed on the FBI’s 10 most-wanted fugitives list for allegedly operating a transnational narcotics ring.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced Thursday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio approved a $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, chief of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, said Wedding “routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California, to Canada and other locations in the United States.”
Davis also alleged that Wedding arranged multiple murders and an attempted assassination as part of his criminal activities.
Wedding has been indicted on charges of 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 said.
In addition to the State Department’s $10 million reward, the FBI is offering $50,000 for information leading to Wedding’s arrest. The FBI says Wedding, who is 6-foot-3 and weighs 240 pounds, uses multiple aliases, including “El Jefe,” “Giant,” “Public Enemy,” and “James Conrad King.”
Authorities arrested one of Wedding’s alleged associates, Andrew Clark, in October 2024. Clark is set to be arraigned Monday on similar federal charges in U.S. District Court in Arizona.
Source: Linda Ikeji Blog