FBI says tips are coming in on the whereabouts of fugitive Canadian former Olympian Ryan Wedding

More than three weeks after the FBI offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Ryan Wedding, investigators say tips are starting to come in. lethal, international drug smuggling operation.

“The FBI has and continues to receive information regarding the whereabouts of Ryan Wedding,” FBI spokesman Rukelt Dalberis told CBC News in an email. “At this point, tips received have not yet resulted in an arrest.”

Wedding, who competed at the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, faces eight felony charges in California and is accused of ordering three murders in the Toronto area. According to a U.S. federal indictment unsealed last month, the 43-year-old man ran a $1 billion U.S. criminal enterprise that imported about 60 tons of Colombian cocaine a year through Mexico and California, then to other parts of the U.S. and Canada.

US court records obtained by CBC show that the 13th member of the alleged criminal gang was recently arrested and appeared in court in Los Angeles on drug trafficking and firearms charges. Four other associates, including the alleged hitman known as “Mr. Perfect,” are scheduled to appear in a Toronto courtroom this week as the United States seeks extradition.

Of the 16 defendants named in the indictment (including 10 Canadians), only Wedding and the other two were released.

The manhunt faces many obstacles. A U.S. federal prosecutor said Wedding may be hiding in Mexico or elsewhere in Latin America and is protected by the notorious Sinaloa Cartel.

What’s more, CBC has learned that the last photograph of Wedding, distributed by the FBI and published worldwide last month, was actually taken 11 years ago for a Canadian driver’s license. Wedding, who is 6 feet tall, is seen here with long, thinning brown hair and a beard. But the timing raises the possibility that he may have changed his appearance since then.

Kenneth Gray, a former FBI special agent, said that may not be necessary in the Wedding case.

“If he’s in an area where he’s cooperating with local law enforcement, he may be living off the money he has,” Gray said in an interview.

CBC previously reported that Wedding was seen in Mexico City as recently as January, when a longtime FBI collaborator met with him and his second-in-command (and fellow Canadian) Andrew Clark.

Clark, a former Toronto landlord, was arrested a month ago near a luxury shopping mall in Guadalajara, Mexico, in a dramatic operation involving heavily armed troops. In a measure of the secrecy surrounding the arrest, local police later told CBC that they “did not direct” the operation and that it was directed by authorities in the Mexican capital, about 500 kilometers away.

Wedding and Clark orchestrated the “execution-style” shooting death of an Indian couple named Jagtar and Harbhajan Sidhu in Caledon, Ontario, in November 2023, according to U.S. officials. Their daughter Jaspreet, 28 shot 13 timesbut he survived.

“These murders were truly the definition of evil,” Los Angeles-based US attorney Martin Estrada, who is leading Wedding’s investigation in California, told CBC, adding that the family was “completely innocent.” He said the Sidhus were mistakenly targeted because of a stolen drug shipment passing through Southern California.

Investigators also linked him to two other deadly attacks in Brampton and Niagara Falls in Ontario. to the same organization. Ontario Provincial Police say they are still investigating whether more attacks are related.

WATCH | CBC News reveals new details in the Ryan Wedding investigation:

FBI is getting tips on the whereabouts of former Olympian-turned-accused drug lord Ryan Wedding

The FBI tells CBC News it has received tips on the possible whereabouts of Ryan Wedding, a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder who is also wanted in connection with three murders in the Toronto area.

Fugitive since 2015

At the 2002 Olympic Games, Wedding, a promising young snowboarder living in Coquitlam, BC, placed 24th in the parallel giant slalom event. Within four years, clues emerged about his involvement in Canada’s criminal underworld.

According to the official Olympic report profileThunder Bay, Ont. Birthday Wedding was named in a 2006 search warrant targeting a large marijuana cultivation facility in Maple Ridge, BC

He was not charged at the time but was imprisoned two years later.

After flying to Los Angeles in June 2008, Wedding was arrested along with two other associates from BC for a conspiracy to purchase 24 kilograms of cocaine on behalf of a Vancouver-based criminal network.

At the trial, the jury heard Wedding was involved in sending money across borders to secure drug shipments. “Were you expecting me to put the money in my purse?” Wedding said in a recording made by an FBI informant. he asked.

He was sentenced to four years in prison. But court records previously reviewed by CBC show he begged a judge in San Diego to spare him a long sentence.

“As an athlete, I was always taught that there are no second chances, and that’s exactly what I want here,” Wedding said.

“Over the last 24 months in custody, I’ve had the opportunity to see first-hand what drugs do to people, and frankly I’m ashamed to be part of the problem.”

After his release he moved to Montreal. And it wasn’t long before investigators claimed he was involved again.

In April 2015, amid a widening operation targeting the importation of cocaine into Canada, RCMP laid five charges against Wedding and issued a warrant for his arrest. They’ve been looking for him ever since.