FBI lists Ryan James Wedding on top ten most wanted fugitives list

Authorities continue to search for Ryan James Wedding. The FBI has stepped up its operation to capture this former Canadian Olympic athlete accused of drug trafficking and murder, including him on the list of the ten most wanted fugitives and offering a $10 million reward for any useful information granted on his whereabouts.

"Former Olympic snowboarder and Canadian national, Ryan Wedding, 43, has been added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. Additionally, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs announced that it is offering a $10 million reward for information leading to Wedding’s arrest and/or conviction," authorities said in a communication.

Wedding faces several criminal charges for leading an international drug trafficking ring and for ordering several murders.

The assistant director of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office, Akil Davis, assured that Wedding is "a very dangerous man," so citizen help in capturing him will be critical "before he endangers" more people.

"Wedding went from shredding powder on the slopes at the Olympics to distributing powder cocaine on the streets of U.S. cities and in his native Canada. The alleged murders of his competitors make Wedding a very dangerous man, and his addition to the list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, coupled with a major reward offer by the State Department, will make the public our partner so that we can catch up with him before he puts anyone else in danger," Davis stressed.

The FBI issued an initial statement in October, reporting that it was launching the operation to seek and capture the criminal. At that time, it offered a $50,000 reward for any information on his location.

In the new brief, authorities detailed Wedding's modus operandi for distributing drugs, adding the nicknames by which he is known - The Boss, Giant or Public Enemy, among others.

"Wedding is wanted for allegedly running a transnational drug trafficking network that routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California, to Canada and other locations in the United States, and for orchestrating multiple murders and an attempted murder in furtherance of these drug crimes," the FBI summarized.

Wedding competed in the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics, in the men's parallel giant slalom. He finished 24th.