Ex-Olympian wanted by FBI on drug ring charges
Former Olympic snowboarder and Canadian national Ryan Wedding, 43, has been placed on the FBI's 10 most wanted fugitives list for allegedly running a violent transnational drug trafficking network.
Wedding is wanted for allegedly shipping hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and southern California, to Canada and US locations, and for orchestrating multiple murders and an attempted murder to further these drug crimes.
The US is offering a reward of up to $10m (£7.7m) for information leading to Wedding's arrest or conviction.
Investigators believe he is living in Mexico, but have not ruled out his presence in the US, Canada, other Latin American countries or elsewhere.
It was not clear if he has a lawyer.
Wedding competed in Giant Slalom snowboarding for Canada during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
His aliases include "El Jefe," "Giant," "Public Enemy," "James Conrad King," and "Jesse King," the FBI said.
In June 2024, Wedding and his accomplice Andrew Clark, 34, also Canadian, were charged in California with running a continuing criminal enterprise, committing murder in connection with the enterprise and assorted drug crimes, and conspiring to possess, distribute, and export cocaine.
Clark was arrested last October by Mexican authorities and was among 29 fugitives extradited to the US from Mexico last week.
The US indictment alleges that Wedding and Clark directed the 20 November 2023 murders of two family members in Ontario, Canada, in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment that passed through southern California. Another family member survived the shooting but was left with serious physical injuries, the FBI said.
Wedding and Clark allegedly also ordered the murder of another victim on 18 May 2024 over a drug debt, according to the FBI.
"The alleged murders of his competitors make Wedding a very dangerous man, and his addition to the list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, coupled with a major reward offer by the State Department, will make the public our partner so that we can catch up with him before he puts anyone else in danger," Akil Davis, the assistant director of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office, said in a press release on Thursday.
Ex-Olympic snowboarder accused of running killer drug cartel
Notorious Mexican drug lord among 29 extradited to US
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
New possible sighting of ex-soldier Travis Decker
(NewsNation) — Police may have spotted ex-soldier Travis Decker, who is accused of killing his three young daughters. He may be hiking alone off-trail near Colchuck Lake in Washington State, the Chelan County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday. The Sheriff's Department says a tip came in from hikers who spotted a lone hiker who seemed to be very ill prepared for the trail. Authorities also said he was seen running from a helicopter. Decker's three daughters were found dead near his vehicle at a campground site. Their cause of death was suffocation. 'It sounds to me like his capture is imminent,' Chris Swecker, former assistant director of the FBI, told 'Banfield' on Tuesday. Swecker worked the manhunt for Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph. Authorities reveal cause of death for Washington sisters The forest where police are searching for Decker is remote, but there are structures in the area, and he could be hiding in caves, Swecker said. He thinks police will close in on him in the daytime Wednesday. 'He's been spotted. There's a perimeter set up around maybe a mile going in each direction, and I think very slowly, they'll tighten down that perimeter,' Swecker said. 'He is desperate, and he's obviously mentally disturbed. If he is armed, he's likely to shoot. He'll see them, the searchers, before they will see him. So they have to be very deliberate, very measured and very disciplined in how they close that perimeter.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
FBI Boss Kash Patel Is Suing to Prove He's Not Nightclub Hopping
Kash Patel has sued MSNBC columnist Frank Figliuzzi over his unverified claim last month that the FBI director had been at 'nightclubs' more than he'd been in his office. Patel filed a lawsuit on June 2 in Texas against Figliuzzi, a former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI who now serves as a senior national security and intelligence analyst for MSNBC and NBC News. The complaint accuses Figliuzzi of 'fabricating a specific lie' about Patel over his nightclub allegation, and claimed there was 'no basis for [the] Defendant's fabrication, and Defendant's use of the weasel word, 'reportedly,' is itself a fabrication,' according to the New York Post. The suit called Figliuzzi's claim a 'maliciously false and defamatory statement' and accused the columnist of making up the story to 'discredit Director Patel because of Defendant's clear animus toward Director Patel.' It noted that the commentator has previously been critical of the FBI head's qualifications. Patel has not spent 'a single minute inside of a nightclub' since becoming FBI director, the lawsuit states. The FBI and an attorney for Patel did not immediately return The Daily Beast's request for comment. Figliuzzi has been approached for comment via his website. Figliuzzi, a 25-year veteran of the FBI, made the remark during a May 2 broadcast of Morning Joe. He claimed Donald Trump's pick to lead the bureau was not often present at its headquarters, the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C. 'Reportedly, he's been visible at nightclubs far more than he has been on the seventh floor of the Hoover building,' Figliuzzi said to Morning Joe co-host Jonathan Lemire. 'And there are reports that daily briefings to him have been changed from every day to maybe twice weekly.' 'The one word that keeps coming back at me from inside that building is 'chaos,'' he added. 'People don't know what's happening from day to day.' On the next Morning Joe broadcast the following Monday, Lemire told viewers Figliuzzi had made a 'misstatement.' 'Figliuzzi said that FBI director Kash Patel has reportedly been more visible at nightclubs than at his office at FBI headquarters. This was a misstatement. We have not verified that claim,' Lemire said. MSNBC declined to comment on the lawsuit. FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson wrote on X at the time that Figliuzzi's claims were 'bogus,' writing, 'I see him here at HQ every day.' Patel's appointment was and has been the subject of significant backlash, given his limited senior law enforcement experience and concerns over his past promotion of pro-Trump conspiracy theories.
USA Today
2 hours ago
- USA Today
Hey, Democrats: LA riots make Americans like me glad Trump is president
Hey, Democrats: LA riots make Americans like me glad Trump is president | Opinion For many Americans, the protests in Los Angeles look like lawlessness. They also are a reminder of why we didn't want Joe Biden or Kamala Harris for another four years. Show Caption Hide Caption See how Los Angeles protests intensified over one weekend What started as a small protest over immigration raids on Friday ballooned into large demonstrations throughout the weekend. Here's what happened. As I've witnessed photos and videos of the burning cars, masked rioters wielding Mexican flags, blocked freeways and looted stores in Los Angeles in recent days, my conclusion is this: I'm glad Donald Trump is president. And I'm not alone. Voters in November chose Trump in large part to address the surge in illegal immigration that former President Joe Biden allowed to happen for years, letting millions of people flood our borders. Trump has followed through on his campaign promises to close the border and to deport many of these immigrants who've flouted the law. By doing their job, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents purportedly have sparked the mayhem and violence in LA, and which is now spreading to other parts of the country. California Democrats like Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom are wringing their hands that Trump has deployed the National Guard and now the Marines to help quell the violence, even though state and local leaders certainly don't have the situation under control. Rather than call out the bad behavior, Democrats and the news media appear to condone the rioting – and downplay what's actually happening. It's an odd strategy, and one that shows why Democrats continue to struggle to connect with average Americans. Opinion: Can you be legally punished for misgendering someone? Colorado says yes. | Opinion Sen. John Fetterman calls out his own party. I give him credit for that. One Democrat at least gets it. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman is once again standing up to the craziness within his party and calling it like he sees it. On X, Fetterman posted a photo of a rioter with a Mexican flag standing on a destroyed car surrounded by flames. It looks like a scene out of Gaza – not the United States. I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations, and immigration—but this is not that. This is anarchy and true chaos. My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement. — U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) June 10, 2025 Fetterman wrote this: 'I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations, and immigration − but this is not that. This is anarchy and true chaos. My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement.' Fetterman is absolutely correct. For years, Democrats have obsessed over the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after Trump lost the 2020 election. Yet, Democrats make themselves look like hypocrites when they are OK with violence that fits with their anti-Trump policy objectives. Opinion: Democrats waste $20 million to learn why they lost men. Here's my free advice. 'Overwhelmingly peaceful' protests? Give me a break, Kamala Harris. Consider some of the responses to the rioting from high-profile Democrats and media figures: ∎ 'The vast majority of protesters and demonstrators are peaceful,' California Sen. Alex Padilla said on MSNBC. 'They're passionate.' ∎ New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker blamed Trump for what's happening. 'A lot of these peaceful protests are being generated because the president of the United States is sowing chaos,' Booker said on 'Meet the Press.' ∎ Former Vice President Kamala Harris and 2024 presidential candidate posted a statement that called the spectacle 'overwhelmingly peaceful' and criticized Trump for 'ICE raids' that are part of the administration's 'cruel, calculated agenda to spread panic and division.' Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store. ∎ Not to be left out, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote the following on X: 'California Governor Newsom didn't request the National Guard be deployed to his state following peaceful demonstrations. Trump sent them anyway. … Trump's goal isn't to keep Californians safe. His goal is to cause chaos, because chaos is good for Trump.' ∎ Brian Stelter, CNN chief media analyst, shared this quote on X from The American Prospect, a progressive magazine: 'These protests, which have been abbreviated in the media as 'unrest,' were actually a cry of hope, and a reminder of the human need for community, the need to turn to each other to find something to believe in.' You get the idea. Burning vehicles and throwing rocks is somehow peaceful. Attempting to stop the violence and enforce the law is somehow instigating it. But to me, and millions of other Americans watching what's happening in LA, the protests look like lawlessness. They're also a great reminder of why we didn't want Biden (or Harris) for another four years. Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@ or on X: @Ingrid_Jacques
