The FBI has added former American Olympic rider Ryan Wedding to its Ten Most Wanted Defendants list, accusing him of running a multi-national drug trafficking system and organizing many murders. The US State Department has announced a$ 10 million reward for information leading to his arrest, alongside the FBI’s$ 50, 000 offer.
Bride, 43, is charged with conspiracy to import cocaine, operating a legal business, and murder. Authorities allege he led a community that recruited large supplies of methamphetamine from Colombia through Mexico and Southern California before distributing the medications in Canada and US locations.
” Marriage went from cutting powder on the cliffs at the Olympics to distributing powder heroin on the roadways”, said Akil Davis, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. ” The admitted murders of his companies make Wedding a very dangerous person”.
The former athlete, who competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics and finished 24th in the parallel giant slalom, is believed to be hiding in Mexico, probably under the shelter of the Sinaloa cartel, authorities said at a press conference in Los Angeles.
US officials allege that Wedding’s legal activity was responsible for the murder of four persons in Ontario, Canada, in November 2023, in connection with a stolen pharmaceutical delivery. Two of the murders were apparently instances of mistaken identity. Lawyers in Toronto said in a court filing that Ceremony has been on the run since October 2023, when officials initially identified him as the president of the legal business.
Among Wedding’s known names are” El Jefe”,” Public Enemy”, and” James Conrad King”. His second-in-command, Andrew Clark, was arrested in Mexico in October and afterward extradited to the United States, along with 28 alleged gang members.
” After his powerful riding career, Wedding went downward in a different sort of way”, said Cart Weiland, a senior State Department official, as reported by the Toronto Star. ” He traded snow for another kind of powder”.
The FBI’s investigation into Wedding and his drug operation is ongoing. Authorities urge anyone with information on his whereabouts to come forward.
