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Alyssa Roenigk
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Alyssa Roenigk
ESPN Senior Writer
- Alyssa Roenigk is a senior author for ESPN whose assignments have taken her to 6 continents and brought on her to commit numerous acts of recklessness. (Follow @alyroe on Twitter).
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Tisha Thompson
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Tisha Thompson
ESPN
Tisha Thompson is an investigative reporter for ESPN primarily based in Washington, D.C. Her work seems on all platforms, each domestically and internationally.
Ryan Wedding, a former Canadian Olympian turned alleged drug kingpin who has drawn comparisons to Pablo Escobar and El Chapo, was taken into custody after a 17-month pursuit and greater than a decade at massive, federal authorities introduced Friday.
In two indictments, prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California laid out how Wedding, 44, and his associates allegedly trafficked greater than $1 billion in cocaine throughout the U.S. and Canada and orchestrated a number of killings, together with the assassination of a key authorities witness.
Thirty-six individuals have been charged for his or her alleged roles in Wedding’s group, together with a Canadian lawyer, a crime blogger and a number of hitmen.
Here’s what we learn about Wedding, his journey from a footnote in Olympic historical past to the FBI’s most wished listing, and what’s subsequent within the case.
Who is Ryan Wedding?
Wedding was born into a snow sports activities household. His grandparents owned a small ski space in Thunder Bay, Ontario, a vibrant port metropolis on Lake Superior. His dad skied competitively in faculty and his uncle coached Canada’s ladies’s alpine ski group by means of the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France. Wedding realized to ski earlier than he may stroll, in response to experiences in Canadian information retailers.
When Wedding was 12, his mother and father moved the household to Coquitlam, a Vancouver suburb, and Wedding switched from snowboarding to snowboarding. He was a fast research. Three years later, he was named to the Canadian nationwide snowboard group.
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At 20, he certified for the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics in parallel big slalom — which might later encourage the title of the FBI’s investigation, “Operation Giant Slalom.” On race days, he carved aggressive traces by means of the course. In a sport the place athletes attain speeds upward of 70 mph, the 6-foot-3 Wedding is just not carrying a helmet in images of him racing within the 2002 Games.
Wedding didn’t make it out of the primary spherical of competitors and completed twenty fourth. Early within the FBI’s pursuit, ESPN reached out to a number of of Wedding’s former teammates, coaches and friends within the sport, however none had been prepared to talk on the report. Multiple Olympians and coaches who represented different international locations on the 2002 Games instructed ESPN they do not bear in mind him.
Wedding arrived in Southern California on Friday after turning himself in on the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. Courtesy of Federal Bureau of Investigation
What is he accused of?
U.S. prosecutors allege Wedding led a legal enterprise that grew to become the most important cocaine provider in Canada. The group cooked cocaine in kitchens run by a Colombian paramilitary group and labored with Mexican cartels to maneuver the medicine into Southern California earlier than distributing them throughout the United States and Canada, in response to an indictment.
In November, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi stated Wedding managed “one of the most prolific and violent drug-trafficking organizations in the world.”
“He’s a modern-day El Chapo,” FBI Director Kash Patel stated Friday. “He is a modern-day Pablo Escobar. And he thought he could evade justice.”
Wedding was convicted in 2010 for trying to purchase 24 kilograms of cocaine in Los Angeles from a U.S. authorities agent and sentenced to 4 years in jail. He was launched the next 12 months. He was charged once more for drug trafficking crimes in 2015 by Canadian authorities however was by no means captured. Federal authorities allege he continued to visitors cocaine into Canada for the subsequent decade.
In their seek for Wedding, who the FBI believed was hiding in Mexico, federal brokers seized a uncommon 2002 Mercedes CLK-GTR valued at greater than $13 million, whereas Mexican legislation enforcement seized dozens of uncommon bikes, principally Ducatis, valued at greater than $40 million, together with three bikes reportedly raced by Italian MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi.
They additionally discovered two Canadian nationwide snowboarding medals.
According to the indictments, the FBI recruited certainly one of Wedding’s trusted lieutenants as an informant in 2023, and with the informant’s assist, intercepted vital communications between Wedding and a advanced community of couriers and truck drivers transferring a whole bunch of kilos of cocaine by means of the Greater Los Angeles space.
FBI brokers additionally collected proof exhibiting how Wedding and his group allegedly ordered the deaths of different drug traffickers. American and Canadian courtroom paperwork comprise particulars connecting Wedding to the killing of an alleged drug trafficker shot in his driveway in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The courtroom information additionally describe a hit that matches the killing of a couple of their dwelling within the Toronto suburbs in 2023, which prosecutors say was a case of mistaken id. Wedding’s group had sought to retaliate in opposition to a particular person they believed stole 300 kilos of cocaine from them, in response to courtroom information.
Authorities seized dozens of uncommon bikes, principally Ducatis, valued at greater than $40 million, that they consider belonged to Wedding. Courtesy of Federal Bureau of Investigation
To what lengths did Wedding allegedly go to keep away from seize?
Last January, a man consuming lunch at a restaurant in Medellín, Colombia, was shot 5 instances within the head.
Federal authorities say the killing was the fruits of a monthslong plot orchestrated by Wedding to keep away from extradition to the United States.
On the identical day U.S. prosecutors unsealed a 2024 indictment in opposition to Wedding, which contained particulars in regards to the authorities informant, a Canadian legal protection lawyer who labored for Wedding’s group instructed him that if the federal government’s witness had been to be “eliminated and could not appear in court in the United States, the indictment would most certainly be dismissed,” in response to courtroom information.
The indictment doesn’t title the witness, however media experiences have recognized him as Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia, a former member of Wedding’s group whom he had met whereas in jail in Texas.
Federal prosecutors say Wedding put a $5 million bounty on Acebedo-Garcia, and thru intermediaries, started trying to find him. Wedding’s group paid a Canadian crime blogger to publish footage of Acebedo-Garcia accusing him of ratting out “one of the strongest underworld networks,” in response to courtroom information.
Once they obtained Acebedo-Garcia’s contact info, Wedding and an affiliate employed a intercourse employee primarily based in Orlando to lure Acebedo-Garcia to the restaurant in Medellín, prosecutors allege. In return, Wedding paid for her beauty surgical procedure and mortgage.
Last January, Wedding’s group despatched an murderer crew to the restaurant, prosecutors say. One man shot Acebedo-Garcia whereas one other took a {photograph} of his physique earlier than fleeing the scene. Wedding’s group paid the alleged assassins $500,000 in cryptocurrency, in response to courtroom paperwork.
Prosecutors say the crime blogger recognized the lifeless man as Acebedo-Garcia and posted a image on Instagram exhibiting the underside half of his physique mendacity on the bottom with a caption that learn: “Boom! Headshot.”
“He got hit with a sniper while sitting at a restaurant,” the blogger allegedly wrote. “The criminal underworld will always find you. The world isn’t big enough to hide.”
How did the FBI lastly catch Wedding?
The FBI put Wedding on its Ten Most Wanted listing final March and, following the slaying of Acebedo-Garcia, elevated its reward to $15 million for info resulting in Wedding’s seize.
The Associated Press reported Friday that Wedding turned himself in on the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. According to Patel, Wedding was flown to Southern California’s Ontario Airport and is now in custody.
Ryan Wedding represented Canada on the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, competing in parallel big slalom. Adam Pretty/Getty Images
“The murder of a witness in Colombia earlier this year was a cruel, cold-blooded act that could not and did not go unanswered,” First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli of the Central District of California stated in November.
Wedding is predicted to make his preliminary courtroom look Monday morning, in response to Akil Davis, assistant director accountable for the Los Angeles FBI discipline workplace. His monetary property have additionally been frozen, Davis stated.
Wedding, the legal protection lawyer, the crime blogger, the Orlando-based intercourse employee and others face drug trafficking, witness tampering and homicide conspiracy prices.
If convicted, Wedding and the opposite defendants charged in reference to Acebedo-Garcia’s killing face a most sentence of life in jail.
Some of the defendants, together with the lawyer, are in Canada awaiting extradition to the United States. Five of the boys accused of transferring cocaine by means of California have already pleaded responsible, whereas others, like Wedding’s alleged second-in-command, Andrew Clark, are scheduled to face trial in October in California.
Two of Wedding’s alleged associates are nonetheless wished by the FBI. One is considered hiding within the Dominican Republic, whereas a girl accused of serving to Wedding launder cash is a resident of Mexico.
The males seen on the restaurant in Medellín stay unidentified. The FBI has revealed their images and is asking for info to help of their identification and seize.
