The FBI added a former Olympian and a Canadian national to its list of top 10 most wanted fugitives on Thursday.
The U.S. State Department is offering a reward of up to $10 million for the capture of Ryan Wedding, 43. Wedding, who competed in a snowboarding event for Canada in the 2002 winter Olympics, is wanted for allegedly running “a transnational drug trafficking network.”
FBI Los Angeles chief Akil Davis said in a press conference Thursday that Wedding’s alleged trafficking ring “routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California, to Canada and other locations in the United States, and for orchestrating multiple murders and an attempted murder in furtherance of these 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 a statement.
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“The alleged murders of his competitors make Wedding a very dangerous man, and his 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,” he added.
Davis noted that Secretary of State Marco Rubio approved the $10 million reward for Wedding’s capture. The FBI is also offering an additional $50,000 for information leading to his arrest.
Wedding was previously convicted in the U.S. of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and he was sentenced to prison in 2010, according to federal records.
The FBI says Wedding’s aliases include “El Jefe,” “Giant,” “Public Enemy,” “James Conrad King,” and “Jesse King.” They say he is roughly 6’3″ and 240 pounds.
Federal authorities first issued an arrest warrant for Wedding in September of last year, but he has still not been apprehended.
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Thursday’s announcement comes just after the Justice Department announced the capture of one of Wedding’s alleged accomplices, Andrew Clark, 34. Clark, a Canadian citizen who was living in Mexico, was arrested by Mexican authorities in October 2024 and is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in U.S. District Court in Arizona.
The FBI is cracking down on drug trafficking across both of America’s borders under new director Kash Patel. (Anna Moneymaker/Kent Nishimura)
The indictment says Wedding and his associates conspired to deliver shipments of hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Los Angeles to Canada using long-haul semi-trucks.
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Wedding is charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances; conspiracy to export cocaine; continuing criminal enterprise; murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and drug crime; and attempt to commit murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and drug crime.
