Olympic star who is now one of the FBI’s ten most wanted fugitives. This is the chilling inside story of the grisly crimes he’s accused of…

Ryan Wedding has never had much issue carving his way down a path that winds this way and that. Back in 2002, the 43-year-old represented Canada at the Winter Olympics.

Wedding finished 24th in the parallel giant slalom in Salt Lake City. Now, more than two decades on, he is the man to catch in Operation Giant Slalom. 

It’s now thought he finds himself in Mexico. And his race is not yet run – this time, it’s the 43-year-old who remains just out of reach of rivals. Many of his alleged associates have already been reeled in. Four appeared in a Toronto courtroom last month and face extradition across the border.

Their alleged crimes? Helping run a billion-dollar drug smuggling operation, on behalf of a murderous drug cartel. The leader of that ring, according to cops? Wedding. Or, as he is also known: ‘El Jefe’, ‘Giant’ and ‘Public Enemy’.

He has been on the run for around a decade and this meandering case continues to take sharp, stark turns. Last month, it emerged that a key witness had been gunned down in Colombia. And then on Thursday, Wedding was added to the FBI’s list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives.

The authorities released a new image of Wedding and announced that the reward for information leading to his capture is now $10million.

Ryan Wedding competed for Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City

The former snowboarder is accused of running a billion-dollar cocaine smuggling operation

On Thursday, Wedding was added to the FBI’s list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives

The wanted poster for Wedding, with the FBI offering up to $10million in return for information

Back in September, Wedding was among 16 people charged as part of Operation Giant Slalom for, according to the indictment, ‘allegedly running and participating in a transnational drug trafficking operation’.

They are accused of ‘routinely shipping hundreds of kilograms of cocaine, from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California, to Canada and other locations in the United States.’ 

Wedding and his supposed right-hand man, self-styled elevator mechanic Andrew Clark, are said to have ‘orchestrated multiple murders’ and ‘shown a callous disregard for human life’.

In November 2023, they allegedly directed the killing of a couple from India in revenge for the theft of drugs. Their daughter, who survived despite being shot 13 times, recalled: ‘I heard my mother’s last screams. After that, there was complete silence. Only the noises of gunshots.’ Investigators believe it was a case of mistaken identity.

Last April, prosecutors claim, they were behind another murder. Clark is accused of sending a list of names to a hitman nicknamed ‘Mr Perfect’.

‘Blow this guy’s top off,’ was one alleged order. In return, the gunman was said to be offered $100,000, plus ‘expenses’. Before long, Randy Fader had been shot dead. The 29-year-old was allegedly first on the list of targets. Why? He was ‘the easiest one’.

In total, Wedding has been charged with eight felonies including three counts of murder and one count of attempt to commit murder.

Many of Wedding’s alleged associates have been arrested as part of Operation Giant Slalom

Another recent photo of Wedding, released by the FBI, as they continue their manhunt

The former snowboarder is believed to have connections to Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzman

The 43-year-old is said to have connections to the Hells Angels, to Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzman – once Mexico’s most powerful drug lord.

‘The Wedding Drug Trafficking Organization and its unremitting, callous and greed-driven crimes has been operating for far too long,’ the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said. 

‘They have triggered an avalanche of violent crimes, including brutal murders. Wedding, the Olympian snowboarder, went from navigating slopes to contouring a life of incessant crimes.’

The investigation into Wedding has involved cops in Los Angeles, Toronto, Detroit, Buffalo, Mexico, Colombia and Interpol. They have seized nearly two tons of cocaine – worth up to $25.2million – as well as multiple firearms, $255,000 and more than $3.2m in cryptocurrency.

Clark is in the hands of the authorities, too. The 34-year-old Canadian, whose aliases include ‘The Dictator’, arrived in the US last week, having been arrested in Guadalajara by the Mexican navy. In total, 13 of 16 targets in Operation Giant Slalom are in custody. Wedding, though, remains on the run.

If convicted, the ‘Olympic athlete-turned-drug lord’ would be spend the rest of his life in prison. For now, he is believed to hiding in Mexico, accused of swapping one powder for another. 

This week, police alleged that Wedding’s network flooded American and Canadian cities with ‘five metric tons of fentanyl’ a month; they ‘are aware that Wedding continues to traffic drugs while in hiding’, too.

A few weeks ago, however, their investigation was engulfed in uncertainty once more. The Toronto Star reported that Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia had helped cops unpick the alleged drug trafficking ring and was expected to testify at trial – until late January, when he was killed in Medellin.

A seizure connected to Operation Giant Slalom, released by Drug Enforcement Administration

The authorities announced in October that Wedding was one of 16 people facing charges

The case goes on. The FBI have released new images of Wedding. They were taken in 2024. One shows him sitting at a table, looking at his phone. In the other, Wedding is wearing a blue baseball cap. He has a sleeve of tattoos down his left arm and a gold watch glints on his wrist.

The authorities know he is 6ft 3in and 240lb. They know he has blue eyes and speaks Spanish. 

They know he goes by James Conrad King and Jesse King. They warn he should be considered armed and dangerous. They believe he has been under the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel and still has a ‘network of hitmen’. 

Beyond that, though? So many questions remain. About exactly where Wedding is, what he is doing, and why an Olympic star went off-piste and slid so deep into the underworld.

Every athlete has a dedicated page on the Olympics’ official website. It details their past results and some include a short biography. Wedding’s reads a little different to the rest.

‘In 2006 Ryan Wedding was named in a search warrant on a Maple Ridge, British Columbia that was investigated for growing large quantities of marijuana but he was never charged,’ it says. 

‘However, in May 2010 he was convicted of attempting to buy cocaine from a US government agent in 2008, and was sentenced to four years in prison.’

There are still a few chapters to add in, from Wedding’s life before and after these brushes with law enforcement.

His story began in Thunder Bay on the banks of Lake Superior, 1,400 miles north west of Toronto. Back then, according to Rolling Stone, he was part of a gifted and talented program. His passions were model airplanes, trucks and engines.

But snow sports were in his blood. His father skied competitively and his uncle represented Canada. No wonder, then, that Wedding had ‘no fear’ when he first tightened his bindings before winning his maiden race aged 12.

Three years later, Wedding was selected by the Canadian national team. His dad reportedly paid up to $40,000 a year to fund his snowboarding dream.

The ex-snowboarder was part of the Canadian team at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake

In 2002, aged just 20, he reached the top of the mountain. But shortly after the Salt Lake Games, Wedding began studying at Simon Fraser University near Vancouver. It’s said he was interested in becoming a stockbroker or an engineer. He would have dinner with his family every Sunday and looked after his younger sisters. He wanted to settle in the suburbs with a wife and kids and, who knows, maybe a condo up in Whistler.

First, though, Wedding started working as a bouncer in Vancouver. At that time, it’s said, British Columbia was known for having the best marijuana in North America. And gang violence was spiraling in the battle to control the drug market. Soon, reports claim, the snowboarder had befriended dealers and was attending cocaine-fueled parties.

He never joined in, it’s said, but soon he had dropped out of college and turned to real estate. According to Rolling Stone, Wedding borrowed $250,000 off his father to flip a house. He made a six-figure profit and, before long, he reportedly owned a condo and a Hummer and a Ducati and a BMW and snowmobiles.

Friends grew suspicious and, by 2004, the police were looking at Wedding, too. They suspected he was running a weed-growing operation. It’s said that the former snowboarder – and a partner – were making so much money that ‘they were literally hauling out trash bags full of cash’.

When the cops came calling, in 2006, they found firearms and nearly 7,000 marijuana plants – worth an estimated $10million. But they never pressed charges against Wedding.

Cops had more luck two years later. After losing nearly $1million – allegedly on a botched cocaine deal and real estate scheme – Wedding travelled to California.

He was there for a deal involving over 24kg of cocaine, unaware that he was walking straight into a trap. He was arrested in San Diego with $100,000 on him. While on trial, he allegedly referred to one FBI agent as a ‘f****t’, while several different girlfriends showed up to court.

Wedding was convicted of ‘conspiracy to distribute cocaine’ and sentenced in May 2010. According to reports, he apologized and swayed the judge, who told Wedding she was persuaded to hand down a lighter sentence than first planned: 48 months in prison.

Prosecutors did not protest. Not when, as one told the judge, Wedding was no ‘kingpin’, only another ‘person who was trying to break into the drug trade, and it didn’t work out.’

But the former Olympian was then locked up alongside many ‘mules’ and minor players of the Mexican drug market. He was reportedly ‘briefly imprisoned’ alongside Acebedo-Garcia in Texas, too. 

Wedding’s group is accused of committing ‘unremitting, callous and greed-driven crimes’

Cops say they have seized nearly two tons of cocaine as part of Operation Giant Slalom

One former FBI agent told Rolling Stone: ‘We really did just turn him into a much better drug dealer than he ever was.’

‘Upon his release,’ cops said last year, Wedding ‘went back to drug trafficking and, in fact, built this prolific and ruthless organization.’

He moved to Montreal and was back in the sights of the authorities before long. This time, he was linked to a man with alleged ties to El Chapo, who is currently serving life in a US prison.

In 2015, Wedding unwittingly told an undercover agent that he imported cocaine. They discussed possible smuggling deals through the Caribbean involving up to 1,000 kilos of the lucrative drug.

In April of that year, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced ‘several arrests’ and ‘multiple charges’ related ‘to a two-year international drug trafficking investigation with ties to Colombian and Mexican drug cartels.’

Wedding faced five charges and an arrest warrant was issued. He has been a ‘fugitive from justice’ ever since. And then, last fall, the US Department of Justice announced their bombshell indictment.

They suspect his organization ‘conspired to ship’ hundreds of kilograms of coke from Southern California to Canada. The shipments, cops say, came from Mexico to LA before being stored in stash houses and then taken to Canada in trucks.

The authorities believe Hardeep Ratte, 45, and his nephew, Gurpreet Singh, orchestrated the ‘Canada-based drug transportation network’. DailyMail.com has reached out to Ratte and Singh’s attorneys for comment.

Wedding’s full list of felony charges reads: two counts of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, one count of conspiracy to export cocaine, one count of leading a continuing criminal enterprise, three counts of murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and drug crime, and one count of attempt to commit murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and drug crime.

Wedding’s charges include three counts of murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise

The Sinaloa cartel, who are thought to be harboring Wedding, have been added to the US government’s list of foreign terrorist organizations

The authorities suspect he has had protection by the Sinaloa Cartel – one of the most infamous drug gangs in the world, which was headed by El Chapo until his 2016 arrest. Earlier this year they were added to the United States’ list of foreign terrorist organizations, as part of President Trump’s plans to ‘wage war’ on Mexican drug crime.

The net appeared to be closing on Wedding. Many of his alleged associates are in custody and his operation is said to have been ‘crippled’.

In 2023, according to CBC, someone who US cops said ‘had trafficked drugs with Wedding for more than a decade’ agreed to co-operate. They reportedly met Wedding and Clark face-to-face in Mexico City last January. 

But then last month, a lawyer for Singh told the court in Toronto: ‘Yesterday… we were advised that there’s been a change of plans — this central witness would no longer be testifying at trial.’ Acebedo-Garcia was reportedly eating in a shopping center on January 31 when someone armed with a handgun and a silencer opened fire. 

‘You can have every opportunity and still take the wrong path,’ Wedding’s mom once told Rolling Stone.

More than two decades have passed since he slalomed his way down that mountain in Salt Lake City. Only time will tell how much longer he can weave his way out of the grasp of law enforcement.

‘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,’ said Akil Davis of the FBI this week.

‘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.’