FBI Offering $10 Million Reward For Information On Ex-Olympian Ryan Wedding
United States authorities are offering a $10 million reward for information that can lead to the arrest of Ryan Wedding, a Canadian former Olympic snowboarder that’s now known as an international drug kingpin.
This Thursday, police in Los Angeles said that Wedding, also referred to as “El Jefe,” “Giant,” and “Public Enemy” is currently wanted for his role in a billion-dollar cross-border drug trafficking operation. He’s also wanted for several homicides that are linked to the trafficking.
The FBI has stated that Wedding is one of the US’s top 10 most-wanted fugitives, and is likely hiding in Mexico under the protection of the Sinaloa drug cartel, according to officials.
“The increase in the reward should make it clear: there is nowhere safe for Wedding to hide,” the LAPD deputy chief, Alan Hamilton, said.
Wedding grew up in Ontario, Canada and competed for Team Canada at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic games. He places 24th in the parallel giant slalom event.
Four years after those Games, Wedding had a search warrant against him connected to a marijuana-growing operation that was occurring in British Columbia, however, he was never charged.
In 2010, he was convicted for drug trafficking after he tried to buy cocaine from a US government agent, he was sentenced to four years in prison.
At that time, Wedding worked to get the charges dismissed over claims that US authorities were committing “outrageous conduct” and used a “violent former KGB agent” as an undercover operative.
Since 2010, Wedding has become known as a powerful transnational narcotics trafficker. Last year he was charged for leading a group that committed “cocaine trafficking and murder, including innocent civilians.”
Wedding is now known for allegedly overseeing the transportation of hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Columbia, through Mexico, across the border into southern California, and then to Canada. “[His operations moved] five metric tons of fentanyl per month,” to US and Canadian cities, according to LA police.
Of a list of 16 defendants that are wanted by the police in connection to this case, Wedding and another individual are still on the loose.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
