A photo of former Olympic Snowboarder Ryan James Wedding. Photo: FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced last year that it was searching for former Olympic snowboarder, Ryan Wedding. Since his appearance in the 2002 Winter Olympics, it turned out, Wedding had taken a turn from a snowboarding career to running an international cocaine trafficking ring. On Thursday, FBI officials announced Wedding has been added to its infamous 10-most wanted list, and is offering a $10-million reward for information leading to his arrest.
The $10-million reward is a significant bump from the news in October of 2024. At that time, the FBI was offering just $50,000 for information leading to his arrest. The original 16-count indictment included 15 other defendants, of which the FBI says a dozen people have now been arrested in connection to the case. Wedding was accused of drug trafficking and murder.
“The cocaine shipments were transported from Mexico to the Los Angeles area, where the cocaine trafficking organization’s operatives would store the cocaine in stash houses, before delivering it to the transportation network couriers for transportation to Canada using long-haul semi-trucks,” read the statement, which outlined Wedding directing the murders of an Ontario family in 2023 in a retaliation for stolen drugs as well as ordering the murder of another person for a drug debt in May, 2024.
“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, assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, in a clever turn of phrase. “The alleged murders of his competitors make Wedding a very dangerous man.”
Wedding represented Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics and came in 24th in the men’s parallel giant slalom. He allegedly has multiple aliases now, including “El Jefe,” “Giant,” and “Public Enemy.”
