Crime
Rs 80 Crore Reward on Olympian-Turned-Drug Lord – Share a Tip & Claim the Bounty!
The United States has announced a $10 million (Rs 80 Crore in INR) reward for information leading to the arrest of Ryan Wedding, a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder wanted on drug trafficking and murder charges. Wedding, 43, is believed to be hiding in Mexico or another Latin American country and has been added to the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list.
FBI Assistant Director Akil Davis stated that Wedding transitioned from competing in the Olympics to running a massive cocaine distribution network spanning the U.S. and Canada. “Wedding went from shredding powder on the slopes to distributing powder cocaine on the streets,” Davis said. The former athlete, also known by aliases “El Jefe,” “Giant,” and “Public Enemy,” is suspected to be under the protection of the Sinaloa cartel.
Exclusive Fraud Risk Management Bootcamp for BFSI Professionals in Lucknow on March 24 – Register Now!
Massive Drug Smuggling Operation
According to Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph McNally, Wedding allegedly facilitated the shipment of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico into the U.S. and Canada. Los Angeles Police Department detective chief Alan Hamilton stated that Los Angeles served as a primary hub, with 60 metric tons of cocaine per year and five metric tons of fentanyl per month moving through the city.
Murders and Criminal Network
Wedding and his criminal organization have been linked to multiple homicides, including the November 2023 killings of two family members in Ontario, Canada, in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment, and a May 2024 murder in Niagara Falls, Ontario, over a drug debt.
Wedding is among 16 defendants facing U.S. charges, while his second-in-command, Andrew Clark (“El Dictador”), was recently extradited from Mexico along with 28 other narcotics traffickers. Authorities are urging the public to come forward with any information regarding Wedding’s whereabouts.