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.
2002 Winter Olympics 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.”
(With inputs from IBNS)
