Once gliding down Olympic slopes, now running from the FBI — former Canadian snowboarder Ryan Wedding has become the center of an international manhunt after being accused of ordering a hit on a federal witness.
The 44-year-old ex-athlete, who competed for Team Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics, is now charged with murder, money laundering, and drug trafficking — and faces fresh allegations of witness tampering and intimidation after the targeted killing of a key informant in Colombia.
Authorities say Wedding leads a violent billion-dollar drug empire tied to the Sinaloa Cartel, trafficking cocaine from Colombia through Mexico and into the U.S.
According to Attorney General Pam Bondi, the fugitive controls “one of the most prolific and violent drug trafficking organizations in the world.” The U.S. Justice Department believes Wedding ordered the January 31 killing of a witness who was set to testify against him — executed in a Medellín restaurant with five bullets to the head.
The Justice Department claims Wedding even used a now-deleted gossip site called The Dirty News to post photos of the witness and his wife, helping assassins track them down.
The FBI has added Wedding to its Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list and upped the reward for his capture from $10 million to $15 million — one of the largest in history for a Canadian national.
FBI Director Kash Patel declared, “We will not rest until Ryan Wedding and his associates are brought to justice.” Bondi added that his organization “funnels more than 60 metric tons of cocaine a year into the U.S.”
Before the drugs, guns, and global manhunt, Ryan Wedding was a rising star. He placed 24th in the men’s parallel giant slalom at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City — then abruptly walked away from snowboarding and plunged into organized crime.
Now, investigators say he’s hiding out in Mexico under cartel protection, his former life as a clean-cut athlete long gone.
Even more shocking? His own lawyer, Deepak Paradkar, was allegedly involved in plotting the witness’s murder — and has since been arrested in the FBI’s Operation Giant Slalom, a nod to Wedding’s Olympic roots.
Authorities say Wedding’s empire brings in more than $1 billion annually, with his reach extending from Canadian ports to Colombian jungles. Once a symbol of athletic pride, he’s now being compared to El Chapo himself.
Anyone with information about Ryan Wedding’s whereabouts is urged to contact the FBI.
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