Former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding, once ranked 24th in the world in the parallel giant slalom for Team Canada at the 2002 Winter Games, is now among the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives.
“Make no mistake about it: Ryan Wedding is a modern-day iteration of Pablo Escobar. He’s a modern-day iteration of ‘El Chapo’ Guzman,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in November, comparing the 44-year-old to two of the world’s most infamous cartel leaders.
Authorities believe Wedding is currently in Mexico under the protection of the Sinaloa cartel. He is the focus of an international manhunt and a US$15 million reward connected to allegations of large-scale cocaine trafficking, money laundering, and multiple murders – a case investigators have nicknamed “Operation Giant Slalom.”
CNN reviewed court documents, FBI statements and Olympic records to trace how Wedding, 44, went from national hero to the elusive alleged drug kingpin known as “El Jefe” and “Giant.”
“The former Canadian snowboarder unleashed an avalanche of death and destruction, here and abroad,” Matthew Allen, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Agency’s Los Angeles Field Division, said.
Born in 1981 in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Wedding grew up in a prominent skiing family and joined the Canadian national snowboarding team at age 15. Between 1997 and 2002 he competed globally, earning a reputation for fearlessness.
“He had no fear,” former national champion Bobby Allison told Rolling Stone in 2009.
”A lot of kids, they say they want to go fast, but they don’t really want to go fast. They hold something back, because there’s a little bit of fear there of falling. Ryan had none of that.”
Wedding retired from competitive sport shortly after finishing 24th at the 2002 Olympics.
His descent into organised crime began after moving to Vancouver and working as a nightclub bouncer.
In 2008, he and two associates were arrested in a sting operation in San Diego and accused of conspiring to distribute cocaine. Investigators found US$100,000 in cash in their hotel room. While his co-defendants pleaded guilty, Wedding went to trial, was convicted in 2009, and sentenced to four years in prison.
“What I did was completely out of character for me, and it is a personal mission of mine to rebuild my reputation,” he told the court at sentencing.
“As an athlete, I was always taught that there are no second chances, and, well, I’m here asking for exactly that.”
Wedding was released in 2011.
Prosecutors allege he resumed criminal activity almost immediately.
A superseding federal indictment filed in October 2024 accuses Wedding of heading a sprawling transnational enterprise that began ”not later than in or around 2011,” moving hundreds of kilograms of cocaine across North America via long-haul trucks.
Prosecutors say Wedding and Canadian associate Andrew Clark ordered multiple killings, including the November 2023 murders of two family members in Ontario “in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment,” and another killing in May 2024 over a drug debt.
Authorities said two victims were killed, while a third family member was wounded but survived.
Clark was arrested in Mexico in 2024 and has pleaded not guilty.
Wedding, however, remained at large – and the case escalated further when a federal witness was shot dead in a Medellín restaurant in January 2025.
Prosecutors allege Wedding placed a bounty on the man’s head and recruited others to track him down and kill him.
In March 2025, the FBI added Wedding to its notorious Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, with the US State Department announcing a reward of up to $10 million for his capture.
He joined a roster that includes figures such as Omar Cardenas, accused of fatally shooting a man at a busy California shopping centre, and Bhadreshkumar Patel, accused of killing his wife in Maryland.
The FBI also released a wanted bulletin featuring photos of Wedding and describing him as 6-foot-3, around 240 pounds (109kg), with brown hair and blue eyes, and “armed and dangerous”.
In November, US officials announced the arrest of 10 additional defendants – among them Wedding’s own attorney – in connection with the killing of the federal witness.
Following those arrests, authorities increased the reward for Wedding’s capture to US$15 million (AU$22.6 million).
“Wedding placed a bounty on the victim’s head in the erroneous belief that the victim’s death would result in the dismissal of criminal charges against him and his international drug trafficking ring and would further ensure he was not extradited to the United States,” First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli said.
“He was wrong.”
US Attorney General Pam Bondi said his organisation trafficked 60 metric tonnes of cocaine annually and called him the “largest distributor of cocaine in Canada.”
“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,” Akil Davis, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said.
The US Treasury has sanctioned Wedding and seized assets including a rare 2002 Mercedes CLK-GTR Roadster valued at US$13 million.
While authorities believe he remains in Mexico, the FBI says it has received “a good amount of tips” since increasing the reward.
Wedding faces a mandatory minimum life sentence if convicted of running a continuing criminal enterprise.
Images: Instagram
