He went from the king of the snow to the kingpin of cocaine, authorities say.
The FBI announced Friday they’d added former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding to its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, with the U.S. State Department offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to his capture.
Wedding, 43, who competed for Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, is wanted for allegedly running a transnational drug trafficking network and orchestrating multiple murders, according to a Thursday announcement by Akil Davis, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.
“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. “The alleged murders of his competitors make Wedding a very dangerous man.”
According to federal authorities, Wedding’s organization routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico and Southern California to Canada and other locations in the United States. The operation allegedly stored drugs in stash houses in the Los Angeles area before transporting them to Canada using long-haul semi-trucks.
Wedding, who placed 24th in the men’s parallel giant slalom event at the 2002 Olympics, is the 535th addition to the FBI’s notorious fugitives list, which was established in 1950. He replaces Alexis Flores, who remains wanted but has been removed from the top ten list.
In June 2024, Wedding and his alleged second-in-command, Andrew Clark, 34, were charged in an indictment from the Central District of California with running a continuing criminal enterprise. A superseding indictment in September 2024 named 14 additional defendants and included more serious charges.
The superseding indictment alleges that Wedding and Clark directed the November 20, 2023, murders of two members of a family in Ontario, Canada, in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment. Another family member survived the shooting but sustained serious injuries. Wedding and Clark allegedly also ordered the murder of another victim on May 18, 2024, over a drug debt.
“As alleged in the superseding indictment, defendant Ryan Wedding—a former Olympian—led a transnational criminal organization that murdered innocent people and put thousands of kilograms of narcotics on our streets,” said Acting United States Attorney Joseph T. McNally.
Clark was arrested by Mexican authorities in October 2024 and was among 29 fugitives extradited to the United States last week, Attorney General Pamela Bondi announced. Clark and Wedding’s drug trafficking enterprise allegedly also involved Hardeep Ratte, 46, and Gurpreet Singh, 31, both of Ontario, Canada, who ran a Canada-based drug transportation network.
If convicted, Wedding would face a mandatory minimum penalty of life in federal prison on the continuing criminal enterprise charge. The murder and attempted murder charges carry a mandatory minimum penalty of 20 years, while the drug trafficking charges carry mandatory minimums of 10 to 15 years.
“The former Canadian snowboarder unleashed an avalanche of death and destruction, here and abroad,” said Matthew Allen, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Los Angeles Field Division. “He earned the name ‘El Jefe’, becoming boss of a violent transnational drug trafficking organization.”
Investigators believe Wedding may be in Mexico but haven’t ruled out his presence in the United States, Canada, Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, or elsewhere.
He is described as 6’3″, 240 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. His aliases include “El Jefe,” “Giant,” “Public Enemy,” “James Conrad King,” and “Jesse King.”
The FBI is urging anyone with information about Wedding’s whereabouts to contact them via WhatsApp, Signal, or Telegram at +1-424-495-0614, or through their local FBI office or online at tips.fbi.gov.
The investigation involves multiple agencies including the FBI, Los Angeles Police Department, DEA, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and law enforcement partners in Mexico and Colombia. The $10 million reward was authorized by Secretary of State Marco Rubio under the Narcotics Rewards Program, with the FBI offering an additional $50,000.