The Justice Department revealed new charges against a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder who is allegedly the “largest distributor of cocaine” in Canada, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The charges allege that Ryan Wedding, 44, ordered the murder of a witness who was to testify against him in a federal drug trafficking case, prosecutors said.
Wedding, who is on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, is the “leader of a transnational criminal enterprise,” Bondi said.
In this Feb. 14, 2002, file photo, Ryan Wedding of Canada competes in the qualifying round of the men’s parallel giant slalom snowboard event during the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics at Park City Mountain Resort in Park City, Utah.
Tony Marshall/Empics via PA Images via Getty Images, FILE
“Wedding works closely with the Sinaloa Cartel, a foreign terrorist organization, to flood not only American but also Canadian communities with cocaine from Colombia,” Bondi said at a news conference Wednesday. “His organization is responsible for importing approximately six metric tons of cocaine annually into Los Angeles via trucks from Mexico.”
Wedding was previously charged in federal court in Los Angeles with multiple federal charges, including directing a continuing criminal enterprise, committing murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and a variety of drug offenses.
He and his alleged second-in-command, Canadian Andrew Clark, conspired to move hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Mexico to the Los Angeles area, where it was stored in stash houses before being transported to Canada and U.S. cities on long-haul trucks, authorities said.
The two are also accused of ordering the murder of multiple people in Canada to achieve the organization’s goals, the FBI said.
Wedding now faces new charges in connection with the January murder of a witness at a restaurant in Colombia, according to U.S. Attorney for the Central District of Los Angeles Bill Essayli.
The witness was shot five times in the head and died instantly, according to Essayli.
“Wedding placed a bounty on the victim’s head in the mistaken belief that the victim’s death would result in the dismissal of criminal charges against him and his international drug trafficking network and would further ensure that he would not be extradited to the United States,” Essayli said during the press conference.
Former Olympic snowboarder and Canadian citizen Ryan Wedding appears in photos released by the FBI.
FBI
Wedding and 14 other people, including his lawyer, are accused in the new indictment of orchestrating the murder, according to Essayli.
The lawyer is accused of advising Wedding that if he killed the witness, criminal charges would be dropped, Essayli said. The lawyer was arrested Tuesday in Canada and will be extradited to the United States, he said.
Authorities said they do not have the suspect who pulled the trigger in the murder and are currently searching for a suspect.
Wedding has been on the run for years and his whereabouts are unknown, authorities said.
The State Department is now offering a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest, officials said Wednesday, up from a previously announced $10 million reward.
The Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on Wedding and his alleged company, saying he uses a “complex” network of finances to launder money.
Wedding competed for Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, where she placed 24th in the parallel giant slalom, before allegedly running the billion-dollar cocaine operation from Mexico for more than a dozen years, officials said.
FBI Director Kash Patel called Wedding a “modern-day” Pablo Escobar. He asked anyone with information about Wedding to speak up.
“Make no mistake, Ryan’s wedding is extremely dangerous,” the deputy director in charge of the Los Angeles field office, Akil Davis, said during the briefing. “He is extremely violent and extremely wealthy. He is being protected by the Sinaloa cartel, along with others in the country of Mexico. We will find him and bring him to justice.”
