Heavy rain poured through the streets of Washington as veteran detective Frank Callahan stepped into the FBI offices. Waiting for him on his desk was a thick file, bearing a name that sent a chill down his spine: Ryan Wedding.
Two decades ago, that name—who would have believed it?—was synonymous with Olympic hope, a gifted snowboarder who brought pride to Canada. Today? The same name was listed among the world’s ten most-wanted criminals, how the tables turn.
Callahan opened the file, revealing blurry photographs, encrypted messages, and maps marked with red arrows stretching across borders, ports, and dimly lit warehouses. The man who once soared down snowy slopes had become a calculating criminal mastermind. The snow had been replaced by dark alleyways, and his dreams no longer revolved around medals but around drugs and death. Yet the question that haunted Callahan the most was simple: How had a revered athlete like Wedding transformed into a ruthless drug lord?
A $10 million bounty
Wedding’s bizarre story made headlines over the weekend after authorities in the United States, Canada, and Mexico announced an unprecedented $10 million reward for information leading to his capture, according to an FBI statement.
“Wedding went from competing on Olympic slopes to flooding the streets of the U.S. and Canada with cocaine,” officials said. “The murders attributed to him make him an extremely dangerous man.”
So how did it all begin? Born in 1981 in Thunder Bay, Canada, Wedding grew up in Coquitlam, British Columbia. He trained as a professional snowboarder and was once considered one of Canada’s brightest hopes in the 2002 Winter Olympics, where he competed in slalom and finished 24th.
“One of Canada’s most promising winter sports athletes,” Canadian media wrote about him at the start of the millennium.
However, as you may have guessed, his sports career did not last long. About a year after the Olympics, he began entangling himself with the criminal underworld.
According to reports in The Vancouver Sun, Wedding gradually entered the drug trade, ultimately becoming one of North America's most powerful cartel leaders. “Don Corleone, the Canadian version,” local media quipped—half in jest, half in frustration.
In reality, that wasn’t far from the truth. Wedding became a high-ranking figure in the notorious Sinaloa Cartel. How high? A quick internet search would tell you all you need to know.
Founded in the late 1980s by Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, the Sinaloa Cartel was led by Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán (yes, the same one from the Netflix series). Guzmán twice escaped from Mexican prisons before being captured in 2016. The cartel is one of Mexico’s most established and long-standing drug trafficking organizations.
Named after the northwestern Mexican state where it was founded, the cartel supplied a significant portion of the fentanyl, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana sold on American streets, with Wedding acting as its primary smuggler and liaison.
Wedding himself remains on the run. A Canadian mafia version of Al Capone. Authorities believe he is hiding in Mexico, Canada, Colombia, or other parts of Latin America, moving between safe houses every few days.
Drug smuggling and terrorist ties
The cartel controls drug trafficking routes in Arizona and California and has distribution centers in several U.S. cities. It has also been linked to fentanyl production facilities in Mexico. According to reports, the cartel controlled an estimated 40–60% of Mexico’s drug trade in the early 2010s, generating up to $3 billion annually.
An American indictment released last year alleged that the cartel laundered about $900,000 in Bitcoin between August 2022 and February 2023. The cartel has also been a major driver of the ongoing violence in Mexico, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
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And Wedding has ties to none other than Hezbollah. Before his first drug trafficking arrest, Wedding reportedly used an Iranian-Canadian suspect’s “cultural” money-laundering network to transfer $100,000 for a deal. An FBI investigation later revealed that his drug smuggling routes included Margarita Island in Venezuela, a known training hub for Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist organization.
Last year, the head of intelligence at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Carrie Thompson, warned Congress about the “clear link between drug trafficking and the financing of terrorist organizations and hostile state actors, including the Iranian regime.”
The FBI also found that Iranian crime networks—including one involving Wedding’s murdered associate, Wayne Meshkati—were engaged in large-scale cartel operations.
Wedding’s criminal empire
By age 29, Wedding had already been convicted of drug trafficking and was serving time in a Texas prison. On February 14, 2011—while still incarcerated—he said “I do” to a British Columbia businesswoman of Iranian descent. Her name later surfaced in a Vancouver trial involving violent kidnapping and extortion.
Her identity remains classified by the FBI, but after a short period, the two divorced.
In a rare interview with Canadian media, Wedding’s ex-wife claimed that he had told her he was only convicted because he was “in the wrong place at the wrong time.” She said they had not spoken in years, and she has since remarried. “I don’t want to be associated with these people,” she said. Her name has not been made public since she was never charged with a crime. However, she was mentioned in at least two police investigations in Canada related to drug trafficking and kidnapping—allegations she denies.
So, who to believe? A tough question. FBI Assistant Director Akil Davis of the Los Angeles field office described Wedding as “a dangerous man who has demonstrated a ruthless willingness to kill to protect his criminal empire.”
He added that placing Wedding on the FBI’s Most Wanted list ensures that “every possible resource will be deployed to bring him to justice.”
Canadian authorities share the same commitment. Liam Price, head of investigations at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), stated, “He remains one of the greatest organized crime threats in Canada. We are working closely with U.S. and Mexican authorities to ensure he faces justice.”
Matthew Allen, a special agent with the DEA, noted, “This is a man who amassed wealth at the expense of countless lives. His ‘empire’ has fueled violence, addiction, and death across multiple countries.”
U.S. Attorney Joseph McNally added, “We urge anyone with information to come forward. Capturing Wedding would be a significant victory for public safety and international law enforcement.”