US Offers $10 Million Reward for Fugitive Snowboarder Accused of Running Deadly Drug Ring

This image released by the FBI shows the wanted poster for former Olympian Ryan James Wedding. (Photo by FBI / AFP)
This image released by the FBI shows the wanted poster for former Olympian Ryan James Wedding. (Photo by FBI / AFP)
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US Offers $10 Million Reward for Fugitive Snowboarder Accused of Running Deadly Drug Ring

This image released by the FBI shows the wanted poster for former Olympian Ryan James Wedding. (Photo by FBI / AFP)
This image released by the FBI shows the wanted poster for former Olympian Ryan James Wedding. (Photo by FBI / AFP)

There's a $10 million reward for information leading to the arrest of a former Olympic snowboarder for Canada who is wanted for running a multi-national drug trafficking network and orchestrating multiple murders related to the drug ring.

The FBI added 43-year-old Ryan Wedding to its 10 Most Wanted list Thursday, while also announcing the US State Department's $10 million offer, The Associated Press reported.

“Wedding went from shredding powder on the slopes at the Olympics to distributing powder cocaine on the streets of US cities and in his native Canada,” said Akil Davis, the Assistant Director of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.

“The alleged murders of his competitors make Wedding a very dangerous man."

Among his aliases, according to the FBI, are “El Jefe," “Public Enemy,” and “James Conrad King.”Wedding was charged last June with murder and drug crimes.

Those charges were augmented in September in an indictment that alleged Wedding and others arranged the shipment of some 60 tons of cocaine a year using long-haul semi trucks to move the drugs between Colombia, Mexico, Southern California and Canada.

In announcing the indictment in October, the FBI said a dozen people had been arrested in connection with the case.

US authorities allege the group killed two members of a family in Canada in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment in what officials there said was a case of mistaken identity, as well as two other people, according to officials and federal court filings.

Wedding finished 24th in parallel giant slalom at the 2002 Olympics.



At Least 11 Dead after Security Operations Against Militants in Northwest Pakistan

Pakistani security officials inspect the scene where a train was hijacked by suspected militants, in Sibi, Pakistan, 15 March 2025. EPA/STRINGER
Pakistani security officials inspect the scene where a train was hijacked by suspected militants, in Sibi, Pakistan, 15 March 2025. EPA/STRINGER
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At Least 11 Dead after Security Operations Against Militants in Northwest Pakistan

Pakistani security officials inspect the scene where a train was hijacked by suspected militants, in Sibi, Pakistan, 15 March 2025. EPA/STRINGER
Pakistani security officials inspect the scene where a train was hijacked by suspected militants, in Sibi, Pakistan, 15 March 2025. EPA/STRINGER

Pakistan's security forces raided two militant hideouts in the country’s restive northwest on Saturday, triggering gun battles that left at least two soldiers and nine militants dead, the military said in a statement.
The raids were conducted in the Mohmand and Dera Ismail Khan districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan, The Associated Press reported.
According to local police officials, the insurgents were Pakistani Taliban, who are known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP.
The outlawed TTP is a separate group but an ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in neighboring Afghanistan in August 2021 as US and NATO troops were in the final stages of a withdrawal from the country after 20 years of war.
Many TTP leaders and fighters have found sanctuaries and have even been living openly in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, which also emboldened the Pakistani Taliban.
In a separate incident on Saturday, insurgents ambushed security forces in the northwestern Kurram district of Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan, local police said. However, authorities have yet to confirm any troop casualties.
Pakistan's military is currently engaged in an ongoing operation in Kurram, an area that has witnessed years of sectarian violence. Hundreds of people have been killed in clashes between heavily armed factions, exacerbating tensions in the region.
Since November, Kurram has remained isolated after authorities blocked key roads following sectarian violence. The closure has led to severe shortages of medicine and food, further deepening the humanitarian crisis.
Also on Saturday, a bomb exploded outside a mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing cleric Mufti Shakir, local police said. It was unclear who was behind the attack and an investigation is continuing.