A former Olympian from Canada has now become one of the most wanted men by U.S. prosecutors. Ryan Wedding, 44, a snowboarder on Canada’s Olympic team in 2002, ran a multibillion-dollar criminal enterprise for years, according to the FBI.
He faced major drug charges and was placed on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list. Last week, federal prosecutors added new felony charges, accusing Wedding of orchestrating the murder of a witness.
In a press conference that included several top White House officials, FBI Director Kash Patel called Wedding a “drug kingpin” and a “modern iteration of Pablo Escobar.”
Who Is Ryan Wedding?
Wedding competed in the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. He placed 24th in the men’s parallel giant slalom racing event.
In 2010, he was sentenced to 4 years in prison for drug trafficking related to cocaine. Wedding then spent years overseeing the transport of massive amounts of cocaine from Colombia into Canada. It’s estimated that he trafficked 60 tons of cocaine a year.
Then in 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) charged Wedding and several others with multiple felonies, including three counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, and drug trafficking. After that indictment was released, Wedding fled to Mexico and disappeared.
Authorities have been after him ever since.
Murder Charges
On Nov. 19, the DOJ unsealed yet another indictment against Wedding. Authorities claim that Wedding and others helped orchestrate the murder of Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia, a Canadian citizen who was shot dead in a restaurant in Colombia in January, before he could provide evidence to the FBI.
The feds raised the bounty for Wedding, who is on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List, from $10 million to $15 million.
“Ryan Wedding is a modern-day iteration of Pablo Escobar,” Kash Patel, FBI Director, said at a news conference in Washington, D.C. “He is responsible for engineering a narco-trafficking and narco-terrorism program that we have not seen in a long time.”
The DOJ and FBI are working with multiple other agencies, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, to track down Wedding.
“We are coming for you. We will find you. And you will be accountable and held to justice for your crimes,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said.
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