The rise and fall of Ryan Wedding, from Olympic athlete to FBI's most wanted drug lord

Wedding was originally destined to become a high-level athlete, aiming for Olympic glory. But instead of becoming a skiing star, the 44-year-old is now considered a kingpin running a transnational drug network across North America.

American and Canadian security chiefs announced last month that several key members of Wedding's criminal organization had been arrested in Washington.

"Whether you're a kingpin or a dealer on the street, anyone who sells drugs to our kids will be arrested and prosecuted," said U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in the press release of the Department of Justice. "Ryan Wedding controls one of the most prolific and violent drug trafficking organizations in this world and works closely with the Sinaloa Cartel. We will not rest until his name is taken off the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted List, and his narco-trafficking organization lies dismantled."

Ryan Wedding on FBI's wanted list. Photo by FBI

FBI Director Kash Patel emphasized that Wedding, 44, is a "modern-day iteration" of Pablo Escobar and the Sinaloa Cartel's former head, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, according to The New York Times.

Wedding, who goes by the aliases "El Jefe", "Public Enemy" and "James Conrad King", is wanted for allegedly overseeing a transnational drug network spanning North America. Authorities suspect his empire smuggles approximately 60 tons of cocaine into the U.S. and Canada each year.

Born in 1981 in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Wedding was bound for a career as a pro skiing athlete, as his family own a small ski resort. He was selected for the Canada national ski team at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. However, a mistake on the first day of competition took him out of the competition. That was the turning point for Wedding's career as he never recovered from that error.

Returning to Vancouver, Canada, Wedding enrolled in a university, hit the gym and began working as a bouncer at nightclubs, where he connected with local criminals. The former athlete soon began his criminal path, cooperating with gangs like the Hells Angels to cultivate and distribute large-scale marijuana shipments to the U.S.

In 2008, a plan to ship 24 kg of cocaine from San Diego to Canada collapsed when his "partner" turned out to be an FBI agent. Wedding was arrested, spent 17 months in a San Diego detention center and was sentenced to 48 months in Texas in 2010.

Ryan Wedding represented Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics in the U.S. Photo by Canadian Olympic Committee

The birth of a drug kingpin

An FBI agent noted that it was his time in prison that turned Wedding into the "21st-century Escobar," as he built key relationships that allowed him to restructure his criminal career, according to Canadian magazine Toronto Life.

After serving his sentence and being extradited to Canada in 2011, Wedding immediately sought to control the drug trafficking route from Mexico to Canada, in coordination with El Chapo’s Sinaloa Cartel. After police busted the planned transport of the first shipment across the east coast of Canada, Wedding fled to Mexico, where he has been on the run ever since.

From Mexico, Wedding allegedly ordered the 2018 murder of an associate in Montreal, whom he suspected of cooperating with the police, Marca reported.

His network used Canadian truck drivers to transport up to 350 kg of cocaine per trip. The transport coordinator was Jonathan Acebedo Garcia, a Colombian-Canadian criminal who had served time in prison with Wedding in Texas. When the FBI partially dismantled the operation in Los Angeles in the summer of 2024, Acebedo became a key witness against Wedding, who had become a drug lord.

However, Acebedo was shot dead in Medellín on Jan. 31, 2025, just before the trial, allegedly under Wedding’s orders. Lacking a key witness, the trial has been postponed to February 2026.

U.S. and Canadian authorities continue to search for Wedding, who is suspected of hiding in Mexico under the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel.