Former Olympian Ryan Wedding charged in unsealed Justice Department indictment with ordering murder of federal witness
Ryan Wedding | Courtesy: MGN
The U.S. Department of Justice has unsealed a federal grand jury indictment that charges former Olympian Ryan Wedding with ordering the murder of a federal witness in January 2025.
Wedding, 44, a Canadian national residing in Mexico, is the lead defendant in the newly unsealed indictment that charges him with two additional counts of witness tampering and intimidation, murder, money laundering and drug trafficking. Several other individuals were also named in the indictment.
According to court documents, Wedding is accused of issuing a “multimillion-dollar bounty” on a federal witness who was involved in a 2024 federal narcotics case against him. Court documents claim Wedding enlisted the services of other defendants to allegedly locate and kill the witness, identified as Victim A, in Colombia.
“The murder of a witness in Colombia earlier this year was a cruel, cold-blooded act that could not and did not go unanswered,” said Acting United States Attorney Bill Essayli at a news conference on Wednesday morning.
Essayli also announced the arrest of 10 individuals as part of the government’s second phase of a law enforcement action entitled “Operation Giant Slalom.”
“‘Operation Giant Slalom’ is a dynamic international investigation and involves dedicated partners collaborating in multiple countries with the shared goal of capturing Wedding, finding justice for several murder victims – including a cooperating witness – and ridding communities in North America of deadly drugs,” said Akil Davis, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.
Wedding is also wanted for crimes, including allegedly running a transnational drug trafficking network that would routinely ship hundreds of kilograms of cocaine. Wedding’s network would ship the cocaine from Colombia through Mexico and Southern California to Canada and other parts of the U.S., federal officials said. In March, he was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List.
Wedding competed for the Canadian national team in the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games before he was convicted in 2010 for attempting to buy cocaine from a U.S. government agent.
At the news conference, Attorney General Pamela Bondi described Wedding as the leader of one of the “most prolific and violent drug trafficking organizations in this world.” She claimed that Wedding’s alleged organization is responsible for “importing about 60 metric tons of cocaine a year into LA via semi-trucks from Mexico.”
She said over the course of the federal government’s investigation into Wedding’s alleged drug organization, 35 individuals have been indicted, 2,000 kilos and numerous weapons have been seized and $3.2 million in cryptocurrency has been recovered.
If convicted of charges in connection with the witness’s murder, Wedding and the other defendants could face a maximum sentence of life in federal prison, the DOJ said.
“No one, not even a former Olympian, is above the law,” said Senior Bureau Official Chris Landberg of the Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.
The U.S. Department of State’s Narcotics Rewards Program is offering a reward of up to $15 million for information that leads to the Wedding’s arrest or conviction.
Anyone with any information regarding Wedding or his associates is urged to contact the FBI via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram (neither government-operated nor government-controlled platforms) at (424) 495-0614. People may also contact their local FBI office, the nearest American Embassy or Consulate, or submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov.
