Ex-Olympic snowboarder on the run as he faces drug trafficking, murder allegations, officials say

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Ryan Wedding, a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder, was charged Thursday with running a cocaine trafficking ring across the Americas and killing several people, officials said.

Wedding is a Canadian national and is considered a fugitive, the FBI said. 

The agency offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and extradition of the 43-year-old former athlete. Prosecutors said he’s charged in the U.S. with running a criminal enterprise, murder, conspiring to distribute cocaine and other crimes. 

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An image of former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding, 43, who is a fugitive and has been charged with running and participating in a transnational drug trafficking operation, is displayed on a video monitor along with bricks of cocaine during a news conference at the FBI offices in Los Angeles Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Canada's Ryan Wedding at the 2002 Olympics. (Tony Marshall/EMPICS via Getty Images)

"He chose to become a major drug trafficker, and he chose to become a killer," Martin Estrada, U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles, told reporters.

Wedding’s group is accused of moving large shipments of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico and California to Canada and other locations in the U.S. using long-haul semi-trucks. He’s one of 16 people charged in the alleged ring accused of moving 60 tons of cocaine each year.

Estrada said four of them remain fugitives.

"The Wedding Drug Trafficking Organization and its unremitting, callous and greed-driven crimes has been operating for far too long, spanning several countries, from Colombia through