The FBI have offered a reward for anyone able to provide information on a former Olympian snowboarder who is accused of running a drug network. Ryan ‘El Jefe’ Wedding, 43, is now on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List.
The former Canadian Olympian, who did not win a medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics turned alleged drug lord has also been accused of ordering murders, reports the New York Post. Officials have offered $10 million (£7.7 million) for information that leads to his arrest. Wedding competed in the men’s parallel giant slalom but only came 24th.
He is wanted for allegedly running a transnational drug trafficking network that shipped hundreds of pounds of cocaine from Columbia to Canada by way of California and Mexico, the Department of Justice said in a press release on Thursday.
It is also alleged that he ordered the murders of some who owed money and an accomplice who is already in US custody.
Akil Davis, Assistant Director of the FBI’s LA Field Office, said: “Wedding went from shredding powder on the slopes at the Olympics to distributing powder cocaine on the streets of US cities and in his native Canada.
He added: “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.”
It has been reported that Wedding has essentially been on the run since 2015, when he was identified by police as “El Chapo’s man” in Canada, and implicated in a large-scale cocaine trafficking ring that involved cargo ships out of the Caribbean, reports Rolling Stone.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are involved in the investigation, calling it “imperative” that the nation’s former Olympic representative be brought to justice.
According to the FBI, Wedding stands accused of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, conspiracy to export cocaine, continuing criminal enterprise, murder in connection with a continual criminal enterprise and drug crime, attempt to commit murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and drug crime.
