Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding, 43, is wanted by the FBI for his alleged involvement in a drug cartel. Wedding's photo was shown at a news conference at FBI offices in Los Angeles on Oct. 17.Damian Dovarganes/The Associated Press
A former Canadian Olympic snowboarder is accused of leading a Canada-based, international drug-trafficking ring and ordering several killings – which resulted in the deaths of a couple in Ontario in a case of mistaken identity, U.S. and Canadian authorities allege.
Police identified Ryan Wedding, a 43-year-old former resident of British Columbia, as the suspected leader of an organization that shipped tonnes of cocaine across the continent. The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced murder and trafficking charges against him in Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon, along with the Ontario Provincial Police and RCMP.
“An Olympic athlete-turned-drug lord is now charged with leading a transnational organized crime group that engaged in cocaine trafficking and murder, including of innocent civilians,” said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada of California’s Central District.
Mr. Wedding, who competed for Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, is among 16 suspects charged in the scheme. He is not in custody but eight Canadian suspects were taken into custody this month to face charges of acting as his accomplices.
Prosecutors in California say the group moved Colombian-grown cocaine to Mexico, and then Los Angeles and then to Canada through a network of stash houses and semi-trucks. Mr. Wedding is also accused of plotting murders.
His whereabouts are unknown but American authorities say he may be living in Mexico. Police in Canada have already been seeking to arrest Mr. Wedding for a decade.
Canadian and U.S. law enforcement officials say Ryan Wedding and 15 other people have been charged in a superseding indictment for allegedly running and participating in a transnational drug trafficking operation.Damian Dovarganes/The Associated Press
In a statement, the RCMP said Thursday its officers worked with the FBI for more than a year on the case and collected “evidence on numerous homicides and conspiracies to commit murder.”
“These are incredibly serious charges against him and the amount of effort that has gone into working it up is remarkable,” Liam Price, the RCMP’s director-general of international special services, said in an interview.
U.S. prosecutors allege in a statement that Mr. Wedding planned the Nov. 20, 2023, contract killings in Ontario that were allegedly intended as retaliation for a stolen drug shipment that passed through Southern California.
Gunmen stormed a residential home in Caledon, killing Jagtar Singh, 57, and his wife Harbhajan Kaur Sidhu, 55. They were short-term visitors to Canada who were soon planning to return to India.
“I want to stress that the family was completely innocent,” Ontario Provincial Police Deputy Commissioner Marty Kearns said at the Los Angeles news conference. The family was “mistakenly targeted,” he said.
The couple’s 28-year-old daughter Jaspreet Kaur Sidhu was shot 13 times in the attack. She survived and in February she told a CBC reporter she will forever be traumatized by the horror of that day.
“My father was shot in front of me. I heard my mother’s last screams,” she said. She described how she underwent 19 hours of surgery for injuries from which she may never recover. “I have to learn sitting, standing, walking – it’s been very hard.”
Police continue to search for the gunmen.
Mr. Wedding is also accused of ordering several other shootings in the Greater Toronto Area – including an attempted homicide in Brampton.
Court records obtained by The Globe show that Mr. Wedding has repeatedly appeared in U.S. and Canadian courts accused of cocaine dealing. In 2008, he was sentenced near San Diego to four years in prison.
In 2014 he was living in Coquitlam, B.C., and declared bankruptcy. In his filings, he stated that he owed more than $500,000 to the Canadian Revenue Agency and that he had been unable to work “due to being in prison for several years.”
In 2015, while living in Montreal, Mr. Wedding faced renewed accusations of conspiracy to import cocaine – more than 10,000 kilos of it, a judgment related to the case says.
According to the judgment, the alleged plan involved transporting drugs from Colombia on fishing vessels to Newfoundland before transferring the shipments onto trucks destined for Montreal.
But Mr. Wedding disappeared from Canada. He “has been the subject of an arrest warrant since the charges were laid in 2015,” said Nathalie Houle, a spokesperson for federal prosecutors.
The RCMP issued a statement Thursday saying that eight Canadian accomplices of Mr. Wedding were arrested this month – four in Ontario, three in the United States, and one in Mexico. The plan is to put the suspects on trial in the U.S. No charges have been laid in Canada.
Mr. Wedding placed 24th in the men’s giant parallel slalom in Salt Lake City. According to his Olympics Canada profile, he was born in Thunder Bay.
Jérôme Sylvestre, who was also part of Canada’s snowboard team in 2002, said he was surprised to learn about the accusations against Mr. Wedding. He described his former teammate as a competitor who was “pleasant to hang out with” during training camps.
But he said they did not keep up after the Olympics.
With reports from Stephanie Chambers