A former Canadian Olympic snowboarder has found himself on the FBI’s Most Wanted list after allegedly running an organized crime ring that trafficked drugs, the Associated Press reported.
Ryan Wedding was added to the organization’s 10 Most Wanted list on March 6, 2025. There has been a $10 million reward issued for information leading to the arrest of the disgraced rider.
"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," FBI assistant director Akil Davis told the AP. "The alleged murders of his competitors make Wedding a very dangerous man."
Photo: Christina House / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Wedding competed in parallel giant slalom at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, so he probably didn’t actually spend all that many days in powder, but law enforcement had a point to make and they made it: Wedding, they alleged, has been up to some nefarious activity. Way worse than finishing in 24th place in the Olympics.
U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Martin Estrada says that Wedding lead an organization that routinely moves hundreds of kilos of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico and Southern California to Canada. As a part of a massive sting in October of 2024, 12 members of the organization had been arrested. Wedding reportedly has connections to the Hells Angels and a Toronto-based group of organized criminals known as the Wolfpack. The FBI alleges that he was one of El Chapo’s go-to men in Canada, the Rolling Stone reported in an expose published in January.
“You can have every opportunity and still take the wrong path,” Wedding’s mother told the author of the story, Jesse Hyde. “But it doesn’t mean you’re a bad person.”
Hyde reported that Wedding’s entry into the drug world started when he began growing and moving marijuana in the Vancouver area, which eventually was noticed by the police in 2006. Police raided a grow operation that held 6,800 marijuana plants and loaded guns, among other things. At the time, it was considered the largest grow operation ever discovered by law enforcement.
Wedding is also known under the names El Jefe, Giant, Public Enemy, James Conrad King, and Jesse King, the FBI says on its website. He and his second-in-command Andrew Clark have been charged with running a continuing criminal enterprise; committing murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and assorted drug crimes; and conspiring to possess, distribute, and export cocaine. Clark was arrested in October by Mexican law enforcement.
“As alleged in the superseding indictment, defendant Ryan Wedding—a former Olympian—led a transnational criminal organization that murdered innocent people and put thousands of kilograms of narcotics on our streets,” said Acting United States Attorney Joseph T. McNally said in the FBI’s release.
“The reward offered today will help bring this defendant to justice in the United States. We urge anyone with information about Wedding to contact law enforcement and help us get Mr. Wedding into custody.”