A former Canadian Olympian has been accused of being a fugitive drug lord

Ryan Wedding, who represented Canada in snowboarding at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, is now a fugitive from the US justice system, accused of leading a violent international drug trafficking ring. Wedding is alleged to have shipped tons of cocaine from Colombia to Mexico, the United States and Canada — and is accused of ordering multiple murders.

The FBI says Wedding, 43, is a fugitive and may be in Mexico. A federal arrest warrant was issued against him a month ago in US Central District Court in Los Angeles. He was working with the notorious Sinaloa cartel, the U.S. Attorney's Office told NPR.

A grand jury indictment was first filed in June, alleging numerous crimes against the couple. He named 16 people as the principal defendants in a superseding indictment unsealed this week.

Matthew Allen, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Los Angeles division, said in a statement, “They caused an avalanche of violent crimes, including brutal murders. “Married, Olympian snowboarder, went from navigating the slopes to transitioning to a life of relentless crime.”

Authorities allege the drug conspiracy operated on a large scale, listing locations from Colombia and Mexico to three California counties – Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino – and Miami-Dade County, Fla.

According to the indictment, agents were able to monitor the group's activities earlier this year, thanks to a mole who relayed coded messages about alleged drug shipments sent on the encrypted messaging application Threema.

The indictment describes an elaborate scheme in which transport dispatchers based in Canada allegedly used dollar-bill serial numbers as “tokens” to verify the identities of co-conspirators as they arranged for semi-trucks to transport tons of cocaine from Southern California to Canada. According to court documents, the alleged leaders of the enterprise's transportation arm agreed to pay a flat fee of $220,000 Canadian for each load.

As part of the federal investigation — dubbed Operation Giant Slalom, echoing an Olympic event Wedding once competed in — law enforcement agents seized the defendants with a total of about 1,800 kilograms (1.8 metric tons) of cocaine, according to the Justice Department. They seized guns, $255,400 in cash and more than $3.2 million in cryptocurrency.

This week, Operation Giant Slalom expanded to an elite enclave in Aventura, Fla. The FBI has raided a multimillion-dollar mansion that one of the defendants, Miami Beach music executive and restaurateur Nahim Jorge Bonilla, reportedly bought from music star DJ Khaled.

Wedding Bonilla shipped 12 kilograms of cocaine, according to the complaint — 7 that were paid for, and 5 on consignment. In June, the couple threatened to kill Bonilla's mother if the remaining debt was not settled within three days, court papers say. Within a week, Bonilla allegedly paid for 2 kilograms of cocaine for the wedding and shipped 20 kilograms of methamphetamine to Montreal, Canada to pay off the rest of the debt.

In other cases, there are allegations of murder.

“Weddings and Clark ordered the murders of two members of a family in Ontario, Canada on November 20, 2023 in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment,” the US Attorney's Office says. The agency said another man was killed in May over an unpaid debt, allegedly at the behest of a marriage and clerk.

12 of the 16 accused have been arrested. They include four Canadians arrested in Ontario this week and three arrested in the United States, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. But marriage and several others remained.

If convicted, Weddings and several co-defendants “face a mandatory minimum sentence of life in federal prison on the murder and attempted murder charges,” according to the Justice Department. Other charges in the case carry similarly stiff penalties.

This is the second time US authorities have brought serious drug charges against Marriages: in 2009, he was convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and served more than a year in prison. Canadian authorities had previously investigated him as part of a drug investigation.

At the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, Wedding placed 24th in the parallel giant slalom, according to her Olympic bio page.