Former Canadian Olympic Athlete Wanted for Murder, Drug Charges
Ryan Wedding of Canada competes in the qualifying round of the men’s parallel giant slalom snowboarding event during the Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games in 2002.
Ryan James Wedding, who competed for Canada in snowboarding at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, is facing a litany of charges by the FBI for allegedly leading an international drug trafficking operation and could be hiding in Panama. The Canadian smuggled methamphetamines and large shipments of cocaine from Colombia, through Panama and eventually into Canada from Mexico through the United States. They moved 60 tons of cocaine per year. The FBI is offering a US$50,000 reward for information leading to his arrest and extradition to the U.S. The Olympic athlete-turned-drug lord is now charged with leading a transnational organized crime group that engaged in cocaine trafficking and murder, including of innocent civilians. Wedding – whose aliases include “El Jefe” and “Public Enemy” – is facing eight felony charges, including conspiracy to export cocaine, three counts of murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and one count of attempted murder. Ryan is considered armed and dangerous.
In an unsealed indictment, Wedding, 43, and Andrew Clark, 34, both Canadians are accused by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) of ordering a double murder in 2023, over what the DOJ called retaliation for stolen drugs. They were killers. Anyone who got in their way they would target with violence, including murder. The duo would hire contract killers and take out hits on people who they believed got in the way of their business. A couple was gunned down and their daughter was also shot several times but survived. Wedding and Clark are also accused of ordering another murder in Ontario on April 1, 2024, along with a third man, Malik Damion Cunningham, 23, also from Canada. The pair is also facing charges for allegedly ordering a fourth murder on May 18, but the DOJ did not release further details of those murders or their locations. Wedding remains a fugitive. “On October 17, 2024, during a media event in Los Angeles, California, United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced that it had charged two individuals, who were alleged to have directed the double homicide in Caledon, as a result of a larger transnational drug trafficking operation investigation. One of those individuals was arrested on October 8, 2024, and one remains wanted by the FBI,” the Ontario Provincial Police said in a release. Authorities said they seized cocaine, weapons, ammunition, cash and more than $3 million in cryptocurrency in connection with their investigation.
The OPP added that investigators are still searching for the person or persons who carried out the double murder allegedly ordered by Wedding and Clark. The DOJ’s unsealed indictment names 14 other individuals in addition to Wedding and Clark, accused of operating a “Canada-based drug transportation network” from approximately January to August 2024. “RCMP Federal Policing worked closely with the FBI during the investigation. “The cocaine shipments that originated in Colombia, made their way through Panama, on into Mexico to the Los Angeles area, where the cocaine trafficking organization’s operatives would store the cocaine in stash houses, before delivering it to the transportation network couriers for transportation to Canada using long-haul semi-trucks,” the DOJ said in a release, adding that Wedding is considered the alleged leader of the operation and has been protected by the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico. Four Canadians were arrested in Ontario this week at the request of American authorities, and another three Canadians were arrested in the U.S., the RCMP said in a news release. Another Canadian remains at large, along with Wedding, it added.
