Ryan Wedding, a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder who competed at the 2002 Winter Games, has been arrested in the United States on serious charges including drug trafficking and contract killings, U.S. authorities confirmed.
American law enforcement agencies allege that Wedding was a central figure in an international criminal network involved in the trafficking of large quantities of cocaine and the ordering of targeted assassinations of rivals and potential witnesses.
According to investigators, Wedding operated for years across Canada, Colombia and Mexico, successfully evading arrest while coordinating transnational criminal activities.
Officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have compared his influence to that of some of the most notorious drug lords, citing his ability to move narcotics and enforce discipline through violence. However, security analysts have expressed skepticism regarding the true scale of his control over the drug market, suggesting that his role may have been significant but not dominant.
The case has drawn international attention due to Wedding’s dramatic fall from elite sport to organized crime, highlighting concerns about the global reach of narcotics networks and the challenges faced by law enforcement in dismantling them.
