FBI says tips coming in on whereabouts of fugitive Canadian ex-Olympian Ryan Wedding
Ex-snowboarder wanted for allegedly running murderous, transnational drug trafficking network
More than three weeks after the FBI first offered a reward of up to $50,000 US for information leading to the arrest of Ryan Wedding, investigators say tips have been coming in. But the manhunt continues for the former Team Canada Olympic snowboarder, accused of leading a murderous, transnational drug trafficking operation.
"The FBI has, and continues to receive, information related to the whereabouts of Ryan Wedding," FBI spokesperson Rukelt Dalberis told CBC News in an email. "Tips received at this point have yet to lead to an arrest."
Wedding, who competed at the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, faces eight felony charges in California and is accused of ordering three murders in the Toronto area. According to a U.S. federal indictment unsealed last month, the 43-year-old ran a $1-billion US criminal enterprise importing some 60 tons of Colombian cocaine a year, through Mexico and California, then onto other parts of the U.S. and Canada.
U.S. court records obtained by CBC show a 13th member of his alleged crime ring was recently arrested and arraigned in Los Angeles on drug trafficking and firearms charges. Four other associates, including an alleged hitman known as "Mr. Perfect," are scheduled to appear in a Toronto courtroom this week, as the U.S. seeks their extradition.
Out of the 16 co-defendants (including 10 Canadians) named in the indictment, only Wedding and two others remain at large.
The manhunt faces multiple hurdles. A U.S. federal prosecutor said Wedding could be hiding out in Mexico or anywhere in Latin America, and that he is being protected by the infamous Sinaloa Cartel.
What's more, CBC has learned Wedding's most recent photograph — distributed last month by the FBI and broadcast around the world — was actually taken 11 years ago for a Canadian driver's licence. In it, the six-foot-three Wedding is seen with long, thinning brown hair and a beard. But the timing raises the prospect that he may have changed his appearance since then.
Kenneth Gray, a former FBI special agent, said in Wedding's case, that might not be needed.
"If he's in an area where he has the co-operation of local law enforcement," Gray said in an interview, "he may be living off the money he has."
CBC previously reported that Wedding was seen in Mexico City as recently as January, when a long-time associate-turned-FBI co-operator met him and his second-in-command (and fellow Canadian), Andrew Clark.
Clark, a former Toronto landlord, was arrested a month ago near an upmarket shopping mall in Mexico's Guadalajara area, in a dramatic operation involving heavily armed troops. As a measure of the secrecy surrounding the arrest, local police later told CBC they "didn't handle" the operation, and that it had been directed by authorities from the Mexican capital, some 500 kilometres away.
According to U.S. authorities, Wedding and Clark orchestrated the November 2023 "execution-style" shooting deaths of an Indian couple, Jagtar and Harbhajan Sidhu, in Caledon, Ont. Their 28-year-old daughter Jaspreet was shot 13 times, but survived.
"These murders were really the definition of evil," Martin Estrada, a Los Angeles-based U.S. attorney leading Wedding's prosecution in California, told CBC, adding the family was "completely innocent." He said the Sidhus were mistakenly targeted over a stolen drug shipment that had passed through southern California.
Investigators also linked two other deadly shootings in nearby Brampton and Niagara Falls, Ont. to the same organization. Ontario Provincial Police said they're still looking into whether more attacks may be connected.
On the run since 2015
At the 2002 Olympic Games, Wedding, then a promising young snowboarder based in Coquitlam, B.C., placed 24th in the parallel giant slalom event. Within four years, there were hints of his involvement in Canada's criminal underworld.
According to his official Olympic profile, the Thunder Bay, Ont.-born Wedding was named in a 2006 search warrant targeting a large marijuana grow-op in Maple Ridge, B.C.
He wasn't charged then, but was locked up two years later.
After flying to Los Angeles in June 2008, Wedding was arrested along with two other associates from B.C. over a conspiracy to buy 24 kilograms of cocaine, on behalf of a Vancouver-based criminal network.
At trial, the jury heard about Wedding's involvement in sending funds across the border to secure the drug shipment. In a recording made by an FBI informant, Wedding asked, "Did you expect me to put the money in my f--king suitcase?"
He was sentenced to a four-year prison term. But beforehand, court records reviewed by CBC show he pleaded with a judge in San Diego to spare him from a lengthy sentence.
"As an athlete, I was always taught that there is no second chances, and, well, I'm here asking for exactly that," Wedding said.
"In the past 24 months I've spent in custody, I've had an opportunity to see first-hand what drugs do to people, and honestly, I'm ashamed that I became part of the problem."
After his release, he moved to Montreal. And it wasn't long before investigators alleged he was at it again.
In April 2015, amid a sprawling operation targeting cocaine imports to Canada, the RCMP laid five charges against Wedding and issued a warrant for his arrest. They've been searching for him ever since.
With files from Victoria Stunt and As It Happens