Canadian national Ryan Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder, was recently placed on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted List for leading an international drug trafficking operation, and allegedly ordered a hit on a federal witness.
Attorney General Pam Bondi revealed on Wednesday that Wedding ordered the death of a witness who was set to testify against him. Wedding, who competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics, published photographs of the witness on a now-deleted website called The Dirty News after he was indicted in 2024.
“The witness was shot dead in a restaurant in Medellin, Colombia, on Jan. 31, according to the feds, as the Department of Justice charged Wedding with two additional counts of witness tampering and intimidation, money laundering and drug trafficking,” reported the New York Post.
The FBI announced Wedding’s inclusion on the notorious “Most Wanted” list earlier this year and offered a $10 million reward for his capture. In 2010, he was convicted of attempting to buy cocaine from a U.S. government agent. Per CBS News:
Officials said some of Wedding’s aliases include “El Jefe,” “Giant,” “Public Enemy,” “James Conrad King” and “Jesse King.” Prosecutors believe Wedding is currently living in Mexico but have not ruled out his presence in the U.S., Canada and other Latin American countries.
Wedding is wanted for crimes including allegedly running a transnational drug trafficking network that would routinely ship hundreds of kilograms of cocaine. Wedding’s network would ship the cocaine from Colombia through Mexico and Southern California to Canada and other parts of the U.S., federal officials said.
In just one seizure, authorities said, investigators found several defendants possessed about 1.8 tons of cocaine with a street value of around $23 to $25 million, according to federal prosecutors.
Wedding also allegedly ordered multiple murders in Ontario, Canada, and has reportedly smuggled 60 metric tons of cocaine into the US every year via semi trucks crossing from Mexico into Southern California.
“Ryan Wedding and his associates allegedly imported tons of cocaine each year from Colombia through Mexico and onto the streets of US communities. His criminal activities and violent actions will not be tolerated, and this is a clear signal that the FBI will use our resources and expertise to find Ryan Wedding and bring him and his associates to justice,” FBI Director Kash Patel said at the press conference on Wednesday.
The reward for his capture has been upped from $10 million to $15 million.
“Ten defendants have been arrested and 11 total are in custody following the arrests on Tuesday as part of ‘Operation Giant Slalom,’ the investigation into January’s murder of a federal witness,” noted the New York Post. “They include seven Canadians, one Colombian, and a 36-year-old from Orlando, FL, who is a legal permanent resident of Colombia.”
Authorities believe Wedding has been working with the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico.
“The murder of a witness in Colombia earlier this year was a cruel, cold-blooded act that could not and did not go unanswered,” First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli of the Central District of California told the press conference.
“This week’s arrests underscore our resolve to root out and punish the wrongdoers involved in this criminal organization and serve as a warning for drug lord Ryan Wedding: If convicted, you will never see the outside of a prison ever again,” he added.
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