Canadian citizen and ex-Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding’s name has been added to the list of 10 most wanted fugitives wanted by the FBI for allegedly operating a drug trafficking network spanning several countries. Also known as “El Jefe”, the former Olympian is currently residing in Mexico, the Department of State said on Thursday, while offering a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest and/or conviction.
Ryan Wedding’s bio: Who is El Jefe? Ryan Wedding was born in Canada on September 14, 1981. Competing for the nation, he was one of the participants in the giant slalom snowboarding event in the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. He allegedly took to organised crime after his snowboarding career. According to the Department of State, he led a “complex” transnational crime syndicate that coordinated the procurement and the smuggling of cocaine from locations in South America and into Canada.
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Ryan Wedding’s criminal charges history Wedding, along with an alleged co-conspirator, was charged with a range of offences including murder, running a continuing criminal enterprise, and conspiring to possess, distribute, and export cocaine, as per the State Department. The indictment, which took place in the Central District of California, followed a concentrated probe in both Canada and the US.
In a superseding indictment unsealed on October 16, 2024, the Canadian national was charged with involvement in a conspiracy to traffic to ship large quantities of cocaine — weighing hundreds of kilograms — from Southern California to Canada, with the help of a drug smuggling ring based out of the North American nation.
The later indictment saw Wedding and the same “co-conspirator” being charged with orchestrating drug-related murders of two members
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