Former Olympian Added to FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted List
The FBI added Ryan Wedding, a former Olympian and Canadian national, to its list of top ten most wanted fugitives on Thursday, Fox News reports.
The US State Department is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to his capture.
Wedding, 43, competed in snowboarding for Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics. He is now wanted for allegedly leading “a transnational drug trafficking network,” according to FBI Los Angeles chief Akil Davis.
At a press conference on Thursday, Davis stated that Wedding’s alleged organization “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.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio approved the $10 million reward for Wedding’s capture. The FBI is also offering an additional $50,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.
According to federal records, Wedding was previously convicted in the US of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and sentenced to prison in 2010. The FBI lists Wedding’s aliases as “El Jefe,” “Giant,” “Public Enemy,” “James Conrad King,” and “Jesse King.” He is described as some 6’3″ and 240 pounds.
An arrest warrant for Wedding was initially issued in September of last year.
The announcement follows the Justice Department’s recent announcement of the capture of Andrew Clark, 34, one of Wedding’s alleged accomplices. Clark, a Canadian citizen residing in Mexico, was apprehended by Mexican authorities in October 2024 and is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in U.S. District Court in Arizona.
The indictment alleges that Wedding and his associates conspired to transport hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Los Angeles to Canada using semi-trucks.
Wedding faces charges of 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.
