And now, Wedding has made it to the biggest time yet: the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives. With a $10 million price tag on his head, Wedding has been charged with a slew of felonies—including murder, attempted murder, drug trafficking and leading a criminal organization.
Wedding, 43, was a champion snowboarder for Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, placing 24th in the event.
But it wasn’t the ice-cold white powder snow that brought him down, it was another kind of white powder altogether—massive amounts of cocaine and fentanyl.
And it all sledded downhill fast from there.
“I haven’t heard of many white men from Canada involved on this level, that’s for sure.”
Soon after the 2002 Olympics, Wedding began a small-time drug career while working as a bouncer in Vancouver clubs, where he hooked up with drug dealers. He’s a big guy—6 feet 3 inches and 240 pounds—which explains one of his Mexican cartel nicknames, “Giant.”
His illicit drug activity grew rapidly, and soon he came to the attention of authorities.
In 2010, Wedding did his first term behind bars: four years for a drug offense. Prison served as college for the drug dealer—there he made contacts with dealers connected to Mexican cartels and his criminal career was well on its way.
A life that once was all good turned very, very bad, very, very quickly and never turned back.
Wedding’s current FBI Most Wanted poster says he’s wanted for “Conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances; conspiracy to export cocaine; continuing criminal enterprise; murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and drug crime; attempt to commit murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and drug crime.”
Enough to put him away for a long, long time if, and when, he is caught.
The poster further adds: “Ryan James Wedding is wanted for allegedly running and participating in a transnational drug trafficking operation that routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico and Southern California to Canada and other locations in the United States. Additionally, it is alleged that Wedding was involved in orchestrating multiple murders in furtherance of these drug crimes.”
Federal authorities allege that Wedding was involved in moving 54 tons of Colombian cocaine to Los Angeles for shipment throughout North America.
“An 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,” said Martin Estrada, US Attorney for the Central District of California. “He chose to become a major drug trafficker and a killer.”
And he did an amazing, if horrible, job of it, becoming one of the few non-Hispanic men known to be significant players in the notorious Mexican Sinaloa cartel, which bestowed upon Wedding the nicknames “El Jefe” (The Boss) and “Public Enemy.”
“I haven’t heard of many white men from Canada involved on this level, that’s for sure,” Tony Wayne, former ambassador to Mexico and an expert in the trafficking of drugs between Mexico and the US, said.
“You can have every opportunity and still take the wrong path.”
“Wedding went from shredding powder on the slopes at the Olympics to distributing powder cocaine on the streets of US cities and in his native Canada,” said Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “The alleged murders of his competitors make Wedding a very dangerous man.”
Wedding was riding high until the FBI and other law enforcement agencies launched Operation Giant Slalom—named after the alpine snowboarding discipline that involves weaving between poles—aimed at taking down his massive, billion-dollar international drug-smuggling operation. In all, 16 people were charged. All but four are currently in custody. But Wedding vanished into the wind.
Even more incredible, Wedding is believed to still be involved in international drug smuggling, even while hiding out as a fugitive.
“Investigators are aware that Wedding continues to traffic drugs while in hiding,” Assistant US Attorneys Maria Jhai and Lyndsi Allsop wrote.
Officials estimated that Wedding, at the height of his operation, was moving truckloads of cocaine and five metric tons of fentanyl per month to US and Canadian cities.
Wedding came from a well-off family in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
“You can have every opportunity and still take the wrong path,” his mother said. “But it doesn’t mean you’re a bad person.”
US Attorney Maria Jhai disagrees—she thinks Wedding is about as bad as it gets.
“This is a complex case involving a sophisticated drug-trafficking organization whose leaders have shown a callous disregard for human life, including deploying hitmen to execute perceived rivals or enemies,” Jhai said.
If and when he is captured and convicted, Wedding is facing a mandatory minimum sentence of life in federal prison.
Honestly, can you get any “badder” than that?
