John Jefferson
Inset: Ryan Wedding. Background: A photo of suspects accused in an international drug ring and drugs seized (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File).
An “Olympic athlete-turned-drug lord” is being sought in a Mexican cartel-linked drug trafficking ring that shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia to the United States and Canada and orchestrated multiple murders as part of the operation.
A $50,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to Ryan James Wedding, 43, a Canadian citizen living in Mexico, whose nicknames are “El Jefe” and “Public Enemy.”
Wedding was among 16 people named this week in “Operation Slalom.”
Federal agents allege criminal enterprise that includes murder and conspiring to possess, distribute, and export cocaine, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in a press release. The lead defendant, Wedding is named along with his alleged No. 2, Andrew Clark, 34, also a Canadian citizen living in Mexico, in an indictment unsealed on Wednesday. Clark was arrested on Oct. 8 by Mexican law enforcement.
“As alleged in the indictment, an Olympic athlete-turned-drug lord is now charged with leading a transnational organized crime group that engaged in cocaine trafficking and murder, including of innocent civilians,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. “My office’s mandate is to protect the public and stopping sophisticated and violent organized crime groups goes to the heart of that mission. We will continue to collaborate with our federal, local, and international law enforcement partners to bring these groups to justice.”
The 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 two other coconspirators from Ontario, Canada from January 2024 to August 2024. The shipments were transported from Mexico to the Los Angeles area, where the cocaine trafficking organization’s operatives would store the cocaine in stash houses before delivering it to Canada using long-haul trucks, authorities said.
As part of the operation, authorities allege Wedding and Clark directed the November 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 seriously hurt.
Wedding and Clark allegedly also ordered the murder of another victim in May – over an alleged drug debt. Clark and a 23-year-old Canadian are charged with the April murder of yet another victim in Ontario, Canada.
Matthew Allen, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Los Angeles Field Division, said the Wedding Drug Trafficking Organization operations spanned several countries, from Colombia through Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.
Allen claims Wedding went from navigating slopes to “contouring a life of incessant crimes.”
In the operation, authorities seized more than a ton of cocaine, three firearms, dozens of rounds of ammunition, $255,400 in cash, and more than $3.2 million in cryptocurrency.
Wedding placed 24th in the men’s parallel giant slalom at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He was convicted in May 2010 of attempting to buy cocaine from a U.S. government agent and was sentenced to four years in prison, his Olympic Games bio said.
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