Olympic snowboarder accused of running cartel to appear in L.A. court
Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding, the alleged head of a billion-dollar drug trafficking organization, will plead not guilty to multiple charges against him, his lawyer said ahead of a scheduled hearing Monday.
Wedding, who had been in hiding for more than a decade and was on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list, was arrested last week. He is accused of 17 separate crimes in two separate indictments.
Anthony Colombo, who represents Wedding, said he had spoken to his client and said he was in “good spirits.”
Wedding, known by many aliases including “El Jefe” and “The Public Enemy”, is accused of being a major cocaine trafficker into Canada and the United States and a ruthless leader who ordered the murders; this includes one of the witnesses in the federal narcotics case filed against him in 2024. Prosecutors said the alleged order resulted in the victim being shot to death at a restaurant in Medellín, Colombia, in January 2025.
The former Olympic snowboarder was accused in a 2024 indictment of running an ongoing criminal enterprise, various drug trafficking charges and directing the murder of two members of a family in Canada in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment.
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said last week that Wedding’s alleged global drug trafficking organization “uses Los Angeles as its primary distribution point.”
After Wedding’s capture, his alleged organization shipped about 60 metric tons of cocaine through Southern California on its way to Canada, said Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles FBI field office.
Authorities arrested 36 people in connection with their roles in the transnational organization, and the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on 19 people, including Wedding, according to Davis.
Lawyer. General Pam Bondi has previously said the Wedding operation was responsible for more than $1 billion a year in illegal drug revenues.
“To say what a bad guy Ryan Wedding is, he went from Olympic snowboarder to the biggest drug trafficker of modern times,” Patel said at a news conference Friday announcing the arrest. “He is a modern-day El Chapo, a modern-day Pablo Escobar. And he thought he could escape justice.”
Wedding competed on behalf of her country, Canada, at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
Colombo, an experienced attorney, previously represented Rubén Oseguera González, also known as “El Menchito”, the son of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Oseguera González was sentenced last year to life in prison and a consecutive 30-year sentence for his role in a major drug trafficking conspiracy.
