LOS ANGELES (AP) – A former Olympic snowboarder from Canada has been indicted on charges of running a drug trafficking organization that transported large quantities of cocaine throughout the Americas and killed four people, authorities announced Thursday.
The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and extradition of Ryan James Wedding, a Canadian citizen living in Mexico and considered a fugitive. The 43-year-old is charged in the United States with running a criminal enterprise, murder and conspiracy to distribute cocaine, according to US prosecutors.
U.S. authorities say Wedding’s group used long-haul semi-trucks to transport large quantities of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico and California to Canada and other parts of the United States. Wedding, who also faces long-standing charges in Canada, is one of 16 people charged in connection with a ring that transported 60 tons of cocaine annually, according to U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada in Los Angeles. Four of them are said to be still on the run.
“He chose to be a major drug trafficker, he chose to be a murderer,” Estrada told reporters.
Christy Hawkins, the FBI special agent in charge of Los Angeles, said more than a dozen people were arrested in Florida, Michigan, Canada, Colombia and Mexico in connection with the case.
U.S. authorities allege the group killed two families in Canada in retaliation for drug theft, which Canadian officials said was a case of mistaken identity, according to officials and federal court filings. He also allegedly killed two other people. Authorities said they seized cocaine, weapons, ammunition, cash and more than $3 million in virtual currency in connection with the investigation.
Officials said Wedding represented Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Chief Superintendent Chris Leather said Wedding faces other drug trafficking charges in Canada dating back to 2015. “These charges are largely unresolved,” Leather said.
Wedding was previously convicted in the United States of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and sentenced to prison in 2010, according to federal records. Estrada said that after Wedding’s release, U.S. authorities believe he has resumed drug trafficking and is being protected by Mexico's Sinaloa cartel.
