Playing in the Snow..................
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https://www.npr.org/2025/03/07/nx-s1-5320945/ryan-wedding-olympic-snowboarder-most-wanted
A former Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned alleged international drug trafficker is now listed on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list — a collection of the most notorious fugitives sought by the agency.
Ryan James Wedding, 43, is wanted for allegedly running a drug trafficking operation that regularly shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico, the U.S. and Canada and for allegedly orchestrating multiple murders to further his illegal drug empire.
Wedding, who was born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, competed in Giant Slalom snowboarding during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, finishing 24th. Now, the State Department is offering a $10 million award for information that leads to his arrest.
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So Canadians ARE shipping drugs into the US!
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Captured!!
Link to videoRyan Wedding, a Canadian former Olympic snowboarder suspected of becoming a cocaine smuggling kingpin responsible for multiple drug-related murders, has been arrested and brought to the U.S. to face charges, U.S. officials said on Friday.
Speaking at a press conference at an airport east of Los Angeles, FBI Director Kash Patel said Wedding was arrested Thursday evening in Mexico City after years on the run. -
Mexican security forces were closing in on the 44-year-old Canadian—a snowboarder who once competed for Canada in the Olympics but has since landed on America’s most-wanted list for allegedly running a vast cocaine-trafficking network—said Mexican and U.S. officials familiar with the operation.
Long protected by Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, Wedding suddenly had no options. By the time security forces caught up with him in Mexico last week, the officials said, members of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team were also involved. Weeks earlier, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s elite, combat-trained unit participated in the capture of Venezuelan autocrat Nicolás Maduro in his heavily fortified Caracas compound.
Law-enforcement officials made contact with Wedding—presumed to be armed and dangerous—and, in an intense negotiation, reminded him that his associates had been captured and millions of dollars of his assets had been seized, some of the officials said. Eventually, said his lawyer, Anthony Colombo, FBI agents handcuffed Wedding, who was then transported to California and pleaded not guilty in federal court to 17 felony charges, including murder.
The FBI’s involvement in the Jan. 22 operation was intended to be a closely guarded secret, a U.S. official said. Mexico’s laws ban foreign agents from being physically present in law-enforcement operations on its soil and taking part in detentions or raids. The nationalist ruling party in Mexico is particularly sensitive to foreign interference.
But on Friday, FBI Director Kash Patel dropped a bombshell on X. “Our FBI HRT teams executed with precision, discipline, and total professionalism alongside our Mexican partners to bring Ryan James Wedding back to face justice,” he said, using his elite squad’s initials.
