Former Olympic snowboarder—and one-time Coquitlam resident—Ryan Wedding, 43, has been placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list for allegedly leading a violent transnational drug trafficking network.
Wedding competed in the giant slalom snowboarding event at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Now a fugitive, he is accused of orchestrating large-scale cocaine distribution and multiple murders. Standing 6-foot-3 and weighing approximately 240 pounds, he has brown hair, blue eyes, and is known to wear a beard. He has gone by aliases such as “El Jefe,” “Giant,” “Public Enemy,” “James Conrad King,” and “Jesse King.”
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The FBI alleges that Wedding ran a drug enterprise that moved hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico and Southern California to Canada and other parts of the U.S. His operations were enforced through deadly violence, including several murders he ordered.
“Wedding went from shredding powder on Olympic slopes to distributing powder cocaine in cities across North America,” Davis said. “The alleged murders of his competitors make him extremely dangerous, and his addition to the Most Wanted list will engage the public to help us capture him before more lives are lost.”
The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs is offering a $10 million reward for information leading to Wedding’s arrest and conviction, supplementing the FBI’s $50,000 reward. The reward is part of the Narcotics Rewards Program, which aims to disrupt global drug trafficking networks.
In June 2024, a federal indictment in California charged Wedding and his second-in-command, Andrew Clark, 34, with running a continuing criminal enterprise, murder in connection with drug trafficking, and conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Clark was arrested in Mexico in October and extradited to the U.S. last week. According to prosecutors, Wedding and Clark conspired to transport bulk quantities of cocaine—hundreds of kilograms—from Southern California to Canada through a Canadian-based trafficking network led by Hardeep Ratte, 46, and Gurpreet Singh, 31, both from Ontario. The drugs were smuggled from Mexico to stash houses in Los Angeles before being trucked north in long-haul semi-trailers.
“As alleged, Wedding led a transnational criminal organization that murdered innocent people and flooded our streets with narcotics,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph McNally. “The reward will help bring him to justice.”
Authorities say Wedding and his associates used violence to maintain control of their drug network. The superseding indictment charges Wedding and Clark with ordering the November 2023 murders of two Ontario family members in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment. Two innocent people were killed in a case of mistaken identity. They are also accused of ordering the May 2024 murder of another person over a drug debt.
“The former Canadian snowboarder unleashed an avalanche of death and destruction,” said Matthew Allen, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA’s Los Angeles Field Division. “He earned the name ‘El Jefe,’ becoming the boss of a violent transnational drug trafficking organization. Now, his face will be on ‘Most Wanted’ posters.”
If convicted, Wedding and Clark face mandatory life sentences for their leading roles in a continuing criminal enterprise. The murder and attempted murder charges carry a minimum 20-year prison term, while the drug trafficking charges carry mandatory sentences of 10 to 15 years.
The FBI urges anyone with information on Wedding’s whereabouts to contact the FBI via WhatsApp, Signal, or Telegram at +1-424-495-0614, submit a tip at tips.fbi.gov, or contact any FBI office or U.S. embassy. Investigators believe Wedding is in Mexico but have not ruled out the possibility that he may be hiding in the U.S., Canada, Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, or Costa Rica. His photographs and reward details will be posted on digital billboards and FBI social media platforms.
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