Why feds call Olympic snowboarder a ‘modern-day Pablo Escobar’

Federal authorities announced Friday that Ryan Wedding, the former Canadian Olympian who allegedly became a drug kingpin and has been compared to Pablo Escobar and El Chapo, has been taken into custody after a chase of 17 months and more than a decade.

In two indictments, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California detailed how Wedding, 44, and his associates allegedly smuggled more than $1 billion of cocaine across the U.S. and Canada and committed multiple murders, including the murder of a key government witness.

Thirty-six people have been charged for their alleged role in the wedding organization, including a Canadian lawyer, a crime blogger and several hitmen.

Here’s what we know about Wedding, his journey from a footnote in Olympic history to the FBI’s most wanted list, and what’s next in the case.

Who is Ryan Wedding?

Wedding was born into a snow sports family. His grandparents owned a small ski area in Thunder Bay, Ontario, a lively port town on Lake Superior. His father skied competitively in college and his uncle coached the Canadian women’s alpine ski team during the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France. According to Canadian news outlets, Wedding learned to ski before he could walk.

When Wedding was 12, her parents moved the family to the Vancouver suburb of Coquitlam, and Wedding switched from skiing to snowboarding. He was a quick study. Three years later, he was named to the Canadian national snowboard team.

At the age of 20, he qualified for the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics in the parallel giant slalom – which later inspired the name of the FBI investigation, “Operation Giant Slalom.” On race days, he formed aggressive lines throughout the course. In a sport where athletes reach speeds upwards of 70 mph, the 6-foot-3-inch Wedding is not wearing a helmet in photos of him running at the 2002 Games.

Wedding failed to get past the first round of the competition and finished in 24th place. Early in the FBI’s investigation, ESPN contacted several of Wedding’s former teammates, coaches and sports teammates, but none were willing to speak on the record. Several Olympians and coaches who represented other countries at the 2002 Games told ESPN that they do not miss him.

What is the charge against him?

US prosecutors allege that Wedding led a criminal enterprise that became the largest cocaine supplier in Canada. According to the indictment, the organization cooked cocaine in kitchens run by a Colombian paramilitary group and worked with Mexican cartels to transport the drugs to Southern California before distributing them across the United States and Canada.

In November, US Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wedding controlled “one of the most prolific and violent drug trafficking organizations in the world”.

“He’s a modern-day El Chapo,” FBI Director Kash Patel said Friday. “He’s the modern-day Pablo Escobar. And he thought he could escape justice.”

Wedding was convicted in 2010 of attempting to buy 24 kilograms of cocaine from a US government agent in Los Angeles and sentenced to four years in prison. He was released the following year. He was charged again with drug trafficking crimes by Canadian authorities in 2015, but was never caught. Federal authorities allege he continued trafficking cocaine into Canada for the next decade.

While searching for Wedding, who the FBI believed was hiding in Mexico, federal agents captured him A rare 2002 Mercedes CLK-GTR It was valued at more than $13 million, while Mexican law enforcement seized it dozens of rare motorcyclesMostly Ducatis, which are worth more than $40 million, including three bikes reportedly raced by Italian MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi.

they too two canadians met National Snowboarding Medal.

According to the indictments, the FBI recruited one of Wedding’s trusted lieutenants as an informant in 2023, and with the informant’s help, intercepted vital communications between Wedding and a complex network of couriers and truck drivers carrying hundreds of kilos of cocaine through the Greater Los Angeles area.

FBI agents also collected evidence showing how Wedding and his organization allegedly ordered the murders of other drug traffickers. U.S. and Canadian court documents include details linking Wedding to the shooting death of an alleged drug trafficker in his driveway in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Court records also describe a hit that matches the 2023 murder of a couple in their home in the Toronto suburbs, which prosecutors say was a case of mistaken identity. The wedding organization had sought to retaliate against a man they believed had stolen 300 kilos of cocaine from them.

To what extent did Wedding allegedly go to avoid capture?

Last January a man eating lunch at a restaurant in Medellin, Colombia was shot five times in the head.

Federal authorities say the murder was the culmination of a months-long plot by Wedding to avoid extradition to the United States.

The same day U.S. prosecutors unsealed the 2024 indictment against Wedding, which included details about the government informant, a Canadian criminal defense lawyer working for Wedding’s organization told them that if the government’s witness “is declassified and cannot be produced in court in the United States, the indictment will almost certainly be dismissed,” according to court records.

The witness is not named in the indictment, but media reports have identified him as Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia, a former member of the Wedding organization whom he met in prison in Texas.

Federal prosecutors say Wedding placed a $5 million bounty on Acebedo-Garcia and began searching for him through middlemen. According to court records, the Wedding organization had paid a Canadian crime blogger to post photos of Acebedo-Garcia, accusing him of defaming “one of the most powerful networks in the underworld.”

Prosecutors allege that once they obtained Acebedo-Garcia’s contact information, Wedding and an associate hired an Orlando-based sex worker to lure Acebedo-Garcia to a restaurant in Medellin, Colombia. In return, Wedding paid for her cosmetic surgery and mortgage.

Prosecutors say the wedding organization sent an assassination squad to the restaurant last January. One man shot Acebedo-Garcia, while the other took a photo of his body before fleeing the scene. According to court documents, the wedding organization paid the alleged killers $500,000 in cryptocurrency.

Prosecutors say the crime blogger identified the slain man as Acebedo-Garcia and posted a photo on Instagram showing his lower body lying on the ground with the caption: “Boom! Headshot.”

“He was hit by a sniper while sitting in a restaurant,” the blogger wrote. “The criminal underworld will always find you. The world is not big enough to hide in.”

How did the FBI catch Wedding?

The FBI had placed Wedding on its Ten Most Wanted list the previous March and, following Acevedo-Garcia’s murder, increased its reward to $15 million for information leading to Wedding’s capture.

The Associated Press reported on friday That wedding took place in person at the US Embassy in Mexico City. According to Patel, Wedding was taken to Ontario Airport in Southern California and is now in custody.

“The murder of a witness in Colombia earlier this year was a cruel, dastardly act that cannot go unanswered,” Bill Essaly, First Assistant United States Attorney for the Central District of California, said in November.

Wedding is expected to make an initial court appearance Monday morning, according to Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles FBI field office. His financial assets also were seized, Davis said.

Wedding, a criminal defense attorney, crime blogger, Orlando-based sex worker and others are charged with drug trafficking, witness tampering and conspiracy to commit murder.

If convicted, Wedding and the other defendants charged in connection with Acebedo-Garcia’s murder face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Some of the defendants, including the lawyer, are in Canada awaiting extradition to the United States. Five people accused of moving cocaine through California have already pleaded guilty, while others, such as Wedding’s alleged second-in-command Andrew Clark, are scheduled to stand trial in California in October.

Two of Wedding’s alleged associates are still wanted by the FBI. is considered one are hidden in Dominican Republic, while A woman accused The person who helps in wedding money laundering is a resident of Mexico.

The people seen in Acebedo-Garcia’s murder remain unidentified. FBI Has been published. their photos And is seeking information to assist in their identification and capture.