Ryan Wedding: Olympian Turned Drug Kingpin Accused of Witness Murder

From Olympian to Fugitive

• 🏅 Ryan Wedding, a former Canadian Olympian in snowboarding, competed in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, finishing 24th in the men's parallel giant slalom.
• criminal enterprise, controlling a violent drug trafficking organization.

Early Criminal Connections

• 🍁 In 2006, Wedding was linked to a marijuana grow operation in British Columbia, though no charges were filed.
• ⚖️ He was arrested in the US in 2009 for attempting to purchase 24 kg of cocaine and served 4 years in prison.

Transnational Drug Trafficking

• 🇲🇽 Following his release, Wedding allegedly joined the Sinaloa cartel and is believed to have trafficked over $1 billion in cocaine.
• 🚚 It is estimated he smuggled 60 metric tons of cocaine into the US annually via semi-trucks from Mexico.
• ⚠️ Known by aliases such as "Elfe," "Giant," and "Public Enemy," he is considered a notorious narco-trafficker evading justice.

Witness Murder and Federal Charges

• 📸 Wedding is accused of ordering the murder of a federal witness who published photographs of him and his wife on a website called "The Dirty News."
• 🇨🇴 The witness was shot and killed in a restaurant in Medellín, Colombia.
• 💰 The DOJ has charged Wedding with witness tampering, intimidation, money laundering, and drug trafficking, with the State Department offering up to $15 million for information leading to his arrest.
• 🚨 US Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel announced new developments, vowing to relentlessly pursue Wedding and his associates.