NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding was slapped with two additional counts of witness tampering, intimidation, murder, money laundering, and drug trafficking and federal officials raised the reward for his capture to $15 million on Wednesday.
Wedding, 44, and 14 other alleged associates were accused of orchestrating the January 2025 murder of a witness who was shot and killed at a restaurant in Colombia. Officials said Wedding placed a bounty on the victim’s head thinking their death would lead to the dismissal of charges against him and the drug-trafficking ring he is allegedly the head of.
Wedding is on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List and is described as “extremely violent criminal believed to be responsible for the murder of numerous people abroad,” according to federal officials.
“You do not get to be a drug kingpin and evade the law,” FBI Director Kash Patel said during the news conference. “Make no mistake about it. Ryan Wedding is a modern-day iteration of Pablo Escobar. He’s a modern-day iteration of ‘El Chapo’ Guzman. This Justice Department and this FBI will work with our Canadian counterparts and government officials across the world to bring him to justice.
“He is responsible for engineering a narco-trafficking and narco-terrorism program that we have not seen in a long time. He will not evade justice. We are here today because this Department of Justice behind the attorney general’s (Pam Bondi) brilliant leadership and the deputy attorney general have made it clear to the American people, with the indictments they have brought, that law enforcement agencies like this FBI will lead the effort to go out there and make sure these animals are brought to justice.”
Patel added that anyone who has information on Wedding’s whereabouts, “Now is the time to speak up.”
“Ryan Wedding has spent years hiding behind cartels, intimidation, and murder,” he told Fox News Digital. “That ends now. This FBI, alongside our partners, is committed to tearing down his operation piece by piece and ensuring he faces justice in an American courtroom where he belongs.”
Officials said a website called “The Dirty News” was also shut down as part of their investigation. Officials said the site was used to post picture of the victim of the January murder and his wife online in order to be “hunted down and killed.”
“Your days are numbered. Our agents and prosecutors will relentlessly pursue you and anyone who assists you and bring you to justice. Not just anywhere, we’re going to bring you to justice in the United States of America,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, Central District of California.
Wedding is allegedly responsible for trafficking tons of cocaine through Colombia and Mexico to be distributed in the U.S. and Canada and uses cryptocurrency to hide his wealth. The FBI has said that Wedding has ordered dozens of murders in North America and Latin America.
PARALYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST PAIGE GRECO DEAD AT 28 AFTER ‘EXPERIENCING A SUDDEN MEDICAL EPISODE’
“Whether you’re a kingpin or a dealer on the street, anyone who sells drugs to our kids will be arrested and prosecuted,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News Digital. “Ryan Wedding controls one of the most prolific and violent drug trafficking organizations in this world and works closely with the Sinaloa Cartel. We will not rest until his name is taken off the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted List and his narco-trafficking organization lies dismantled.”
Wedding participated in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City after missing out on the 1998 Games. It was the only Olympics he competed in.
In his only event, the men’s parallel giant slalom, Wedding finished in 24th place. Switzerland’s Philipp Schoch won gold, Sweden’s Richard Rikardsson won silver and Chris Klug of the U.S. took bronze.
Wedding was first linked to criminal activity in 2006. He and another competitive snowboarder were named in a search warrant for a house in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, that was investigated for growing large quantities of marijuana, according to The Vancouver Sun.
Police seized 6,800 marijuana plants from that house, but no one was charged.
Wedding was arrested for the first time in 2009 in the U.S. after traveling with two friends from Vancouver to California to allegedly buy 24 kilograms of Colombian cocaine. The FBI determined Wedding was working for a drug lord in Vancouver at the time.
He served a four-year jail sentence after agreeing to forfeit more than $121,000 seized during an airport sting and agreeing to drop an appeal of his conviction.
In 2015, Wedding faced new charges on drug-related offenses in Nova Scotia. Since then, however, he’s been on the lam.
U.S. investigators believed Wedding was being protected by the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico and resumed trafficking soon after he was released from prison. Federal authorities first issued an arrest warrant for Wedding in September 2024.
Wedding is believed to also go by the aliases “El Jefe,” “Giant,” “Public Enemy,” “James Conrad King” and “Jesse King” and is estimated to have transported over $1 billion in cocaine.
Wedding and alleged accomplice Andrew Clark, who was apprehended in October 2024 and extradited earlier this year, are accused of coordinating the murder of an Ontario family “in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment that passed through Southern California.”
The FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police allege Wedding and Clark coordinated a November 2023 double homicide in Ontario involving an innocent couple in a mistaken-identity killing, according to the FBI.
Wedding and Clark are also accused of coordinating the murder of another person in May over a drug debt.
The murder and criminal enterprise charges against Wedding carry a mandatory minimum penalty of life in a federal prison.
Fox News’ Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.
Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Read the full article here