Former Olympic snowboarder and Canadian national, Ryan Wedding, 43, has been added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, Akil Davis, the Assistant Director in Charge (ADIC) of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, announced recently.
Winter Olympic Appearance
Ryan Wedding, whose aliases include “El Jefe,” “Giant,” “Public Enemy,” “James Conrad King,” and “Jesse King,” was born in Thunder Bay, Canada, and competed in the Giant Slalom snowboarding competition during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Drug Trafficking
At present, Wedding is wanted for allegedly running a transnational drug trafficking network that routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California, to Canada and other locations in the United States, and for orchestrating multiple murders and an attempted murder in furtherance of these drug crimes, FBI said in a statement.
Wedding’s placement on the top ten list marks the 535th addition to the FBI’s list of notorious fugitives.
Wedding will replace Alexis Flores who is wanted by FBI Philadelphia.
Although Flores is being removed from the list today, he will remain on the FBI’s website on its Most Wanted page.
“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, the Assistant Director of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.
“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,” Davis said.
USD 10 million reward
Additionally, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs announced that it is offering a $10 million reward for information leading to Wedding’s arrest and/or conviction.
The reward was authorized by Secretary of State Marco Rubio under the Narcotics Rewards Program (NRP), which supports law enforcement efforts to disrupt transnational crime globally and bring fugitives to justice.
This reward offering supplements the FBI’s current offering of $50,000 for information leading to Wedding’s apprehension, arrest, and extradition, and further, is jointly being offered with assistance from the Canadian and Mexican governments as part of a unified effort to bring Wedding to justice.
“The Department of State is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Ryan James Wedding,” said Senior Bureau Official F. Cartwright Weiland of the Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). “We are committed to protecting American communities from thugs who, with clear consciences, deliberately peddle illicit narcotics and prey on our youth.”
In June 2024, Wedding and his second-in-command Andrew Clark, 34, also Canadian, were charged in an indictment out of the Central District of California with running a continuing criminal enterprise; committing murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and assorted drug crimes; and conspiring to possess, distribute, and export cocaine. Clark, who was arrested last October by Mexican authorities, was among the 29 fugitives whom Attorney General Pamela Bondi announced had arrived in the United States from Mexico last week.
In September 2024, a federal grand jury in Los Angeles returned a superseding indictment naming 14 additional defendants and including, among other counts, an attempted murder charge against Wedding and Clark.
The superseding indictment alleges that Wedding, Clark, and others conspired to ship bulk quantities of cocaine—weighing hundreds of kilograms—from Southern California to Canada through a Canada-based drug transportation network run by Hardeep Ratte, 46, of Ontario, Canada, and Gurpreet Singh, 31, of Ontario, Canada, from approximately January 2024 to August 2024.
The cocaine shipments were transported from Mexico to the Los Angeles area, where the cocaine trafficking organization’s operatives stored the cocaine in stash houses, before delivering it to the transportation network couriers for delivery to Canada using long-haul semi-trucks.
“As alleged in the superseding indictment, defendant Ryan Wedding—a former Olympian—led a transnational criminal organization that murdered innocent people and put thousands of kilograms of narcotics on our streets,” said Acting United States Attorney Joseph T. McNally. “The reward offered today will help bring this defendant to justice in the United States. We urge anyone with information about Wedding to contact law enforcement and help us get Mr. Wedding into custody.”
The superseding indictment also alleges that Wedding and Clark’s organization resorted to violence—including multiple murders—to achieve its aims. Wedding and Clark allegedly directed the November 20, 2023, murders of two members of a family in Ontario, Canada, in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment that passed through Southern California.
Another member of that family survived the shooting but was left with serious physical injuries. Wedding and Clark allegedly also ordered the murder of another victim on May 18, 2024, over a drug debt. In addition, Clark and Malik Damion Cunningham, 23, a dual Canadian-American citizen, are charged with the April 1, 2024, murder of another victim in Ontario, Canada.
“The RCMP is committed to working with our international partners in the fight against transnational criminals,” said Liam Price, Director General, Royal Canadian Mounted Police International program. “It’s imperative that Ryan Wedding faces justice for the charges against him. We will continue to stand with and support our US and Mexican partners in this and other investigations to protect the public.”
If convicted, Wedding and Clark would face a mandatory minimum penalty of life in federal prison on their respective continuing criminal enterprise charge. The murder and attempted murder charges carry a mandatory minimum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.
Penalties
The drug trafficking charges carry mandatory minimum penalties of 10 to 15 years in prison.
“The former Canadian snowboarder unleashed an avalanche of death and destruction, here and abroad,” said Matthew Allen, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Los Angeles Field Division. “He earned the name ‘El Jefe’, becoming boss of a violent transnational drug trafficking organization. Now, his face will be on ‘The Top 10 Most Wanted’ posters. He’s unremitting, callous and greed-driven. Today’s announcement beams an even brighter searchlight on him. We ask that you help us find him.”
