Ryan Wedding: FBI offers $10 million reward for arrest of former Olympic snowboarder alleged to have trafficked drugs through SoCal

Snowboarder Ryan Wedding has been added to the FBI’s most wanted list, the agency said Thursday. The State Department is offering a reward of up to $10 million for any information leading to Wedding’s arrest.

According to the announcement, “Wedding is wanted for allegedly running a transnational drug trafficking network that 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.”

A grand jury in Los Angeles indicted Wedding in September, along with alleged second-in-command Andrew Clark and fourteen others. According to the FBI, “The cocaine shipments were transported from Mexico to the Los Angeles area, where the cocaine trafficking organization’s operatives stored the cocaine in stash houses, before delivering it to the transportation network couriers for delivery to Canada using long-haul semi-trucks.”

Wedding and Clark are alleged to have directed four successful or attempted murders. In 2023, the FBI claims, they ordered the killing of two members of an Ontario family in retaliation for the theft of a drug shipment. They are also accused of ordering the death of a third member of the same family, who survived the attack, and of a fourth victim who had incurred a drug debt.

Canadian police are working with the FBI on the case. “The RCMP is committed to working with our international partners in the fight against transnational criminals,” said Liam Price, Director General of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police International program. “It’s imperative that Ryan Wedding faces justice for the charges against him. We will continue to stand with and support our US and Mexican partners in this and other investigations to protect the public.”

The alleged kingpin is thought to have used a number of aliases, including “El Jefe,” “Giant,” “Public Enemy,” “James Conrad King,” and “Jesse King.”

Wedding, now 43, competed for Canada in snowboard giant slalom at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. In that event, he placed 24th. In 2006, he was named in a search warrant for growing marijuana in Maple Ridge, British Columbia. However, he was never charged. In 2008, he was indicted for purchasing cocaine from a U.S. federal agent, for which he was sentenced to four years in prison. 

“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,” said Akil Davis, the Assistant Director of the FBI’s L.A. Field Office. “The alleged murders of his competitors make Wedding a very dangerous man, and his addition to the list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, coupled with a major reward offer by the State Department, will make the public our partner so that we can catch up with him before he puts anyone else in danger.”

The FBI believes that Wedding currently resides in Mexico. However, it has not ruled out the possibility that he is located in other countries including the United States, Canada, Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, or Costa Rica. The agency’s announcement states that he should be treated as armed and dangerous.

“The former Canadian snowboarder unleashed an avalanche of death and destruction, here and abroad,” said Matthew Allen of the Drug Enforcement Agency. “He earned the name ‘El Jefe’, becoming boss of a violent transnational drug trafficking organization. Now, his face will be on ‘The Top 10 Most Wanted’ posters. He’s unremitting, callous and greed-driven. Today’s announcement beams an even brighter searchlight on him. We ask that you help us find him.”

Anyone who has information on his whereabouts is urged to contact the FBI via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram at 424 495-0614. Tips may also be confidentially directed to local FBI offices, American embassies and consulates, and tips.fbi.gov.