Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Manhunt Heats Up For Olympian Turned Drug King Pin: Feds

Episode Date: December 10, 2025

Former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding is accused of running one of the largest cocaine operations in the world. Wedding competed in the Olympics for Canada in 2002. But the FBI said in 2011 he started a cocaine ring that grew to one of the largest in the world and led to the murder of a government witness. The feds have released a new photo of Wedding in the hope that someone will turn him along with offering a $15 million reward. Law&Crime’s Angenette Levy looks at the new photo and the case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Therapy with NOCD is 100% virtual, and covered by insurance for over 155 million Americans. Plus, they provide support between sessions, so you're never navigating this alone.If any of this sounds familiar, visit nocd.com to book a free call with their team. That's N-O-C-D.com to learn more and get connected to someone who can help.https://learn.nocd.com/CRIMEFIXHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Bobby Chacon https://www.tiktok.com/@bobbycfbiProducer:Jordan ChaconCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. He's currently on the FBI's and has been top 10 most wanted list. The Manhunt intensifies for alleged drug kingpin and former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding. You do not get to be a drug kingpin and evade the law. Make no mistake about it. Ryan Wedding is a modern day iteration of Pablo Escobar. Will this newly released photo and the promise of a multi-million dollar reward lead to his capture?

I take a look. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Ryan Wedding is one of the FBI's most wanted criminals in the entire world. And it's not because of his skills on the story. Slopes. Wedding was once an Olympic snowboarder. In 2002, he actually competed for Canada. But after that, things changed, according to the FBI and the Attorney General for the United States. Wedding is the former Olympian from Canada, who is now the leader of a transnational criminal enterprise.

He's currently on the FBI's and has been top 10 most wanted list. He controls one of the most prolific and violent drug trafficking organizations in this world. He is currently the largest distributor of cocaine in Canada. Wedding collaborates closely with the Sinaloa cartel, a foreign terrorist organization, to flood not only American, but also Canadian communities with cocaine coming from Columbia. His organization is responsible for importing approximately 60 metric tons of cocaine a year into Los Angeles via semi-trucks from Mexico. To put that in perspective, 60 metric tons is approximately 40, the weight of 40 standard cars. imagine that. That's how much cocaine, the weight of 40 cars he is bringing into our country a year.

That is really incredible and really hard to imagine. The attorney general, Pam Bondi, says Ryan Wedding is responsible for bringing the weight of 40 cars worth of cocaine into the country each year. A superseding indictment charging wedding and others with a number of crime states the wedding criminal enterprise, a billion, drug trafficking organization and the largest supplier of cocaine to Canada, operated in Mexico, Colombia, Canada, and the United States, among other countries. The Wedding Criminal Enterprise sourced its cocaine from Colombia, cooking and testing it in cocaine kitchens run collaboratively with a Colombian neo-paramilitary group and drug cartel. The feds say the enterprise has just one goal to make money for its members with wedding at the very top and his second in command and Andrew Clark and other co-conspirators beneath them. The indictment states members and associates

of the Wedding Criminal Enterprise committed, attempted to commit, conspired to commit, and threatened to commit acts of violence, including murder to preserve, protect, promote, and expand the Wedding criminal enterprises drug trafficking operations. The feds say Ryan Wedding turned into a drug kingpin in 2011, establishing that wedding criminal enterprise and murder, according to the feds, was one way that wedding and his cronies ensured they could grow the business. And it appears from photos they released that they've been keeping an eye on him for a while. And one reason the Department of Justice wants Ryan Wedding so badly, he's accused of having a federal witness murdered to stop his prosecution. The indictment states defendant Parodkar and others known and unknown to the

grand jury would advise defendant wedding and Clark that victim A's murder would benefit them by causing the federal indictment against them in wedding and related extradition proceedings to be dismissed. Defendant Wedding would place a multimillion dollar bounty on victim A and enlist the services of defendants Flores and ONA to locate and kill victim A. And the feds say there were other victims of violence. The indictment states defendant wedding and Clark would issue an order to kill CC1, believing that CC1 had stolen approximately 200 kilograms of cocaine from them. Clark would enlist the services of a Canadian-based assassin crew to murder CC1. Members of the conspiracy would break into a house that victims B, C, and D were renting and kill victims B and C,

and cause victim D, serious bodily injury. The superseding indictment goes on and on and on, explaining the ways in which Wedding and his co-conspirators are accused of transporting drugs through the United States. There are photos of drugs packaged in bricks, but disguised with artwork, one, it's stamped with a snowflake. No irony there. Another had a dog, and then there was one marked with Tony the Tiger from the serial. The FBI released photos of Ryan Wedding last month and said they were offering a 15 million

dollar reward for his capture. But now they've released this newer photo. This one shows Ryan Wedding shirtless in a bed with a tattoo on his chest. A post on X from the FBI Los Angeles office stated, the FBI is releasing a newly obtained photograph of FBI top 10 fugitive Ryan Wedding. The photo is believed to have been taken of wedding in Mexico during the summer of 2025. Ryan James Wedding is wanted for allegedly running and participating in a transnational drug trafficking operation that routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico and Southern California to Canada and other locations in the United States. Additionally, it is alleged that wedding was involved in orchestrating multiple murders and furtherance of these drug crimes.

You do not get to be a drug kingpin and evade the law. Make no mistake about it. Ryan Wedding is a modern-day iteration of Pablo Escobar. He's a modern-day iteration of El Chapo Guzman. This Justice Department and this FBI will work with our Canadian counterparts and the government officials across the world to bring him to justice. He is responsible for engineering a narco-trafficking and narco-terrorism program that we have not seen in a long time. He will not evade justice. If you've ever suffered from intrusive thoughts like unwanted violent images or sudden out-of-character urges, then you know they can be scarier than any true crime case.

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no CD is 100% virtual. It provides support between sessions and it's covered by insurance companies for more than 155 million Americans. Visit nocd.com to book a free call. and get connected to someone who can help you. So to discuss this manhunt for Ryan Wedding, I want to bring in Bobby Chaconne. He's a retired FBI agent, and he's also a lawyer. Bobby, this is an amazing story to me, an incredibly scary story. I mean, you've got somebody who is an Olympic athlete.

What a crazy kind of fall from grace. You know, back in 2002, that was a long time ago, of course. But then, you know, in 2011, they say he turns into this, you know, drug kingpin on par with Pablo Escobar. And he's ordering hits on people, allegedly, and willing to take out anybody who gets in his way. So the feds really, really want him. They say he murdered a witness, a government witness, and he's ordered the murders of other people. So talk to me if you're a Fed, how badly you want this guy. Yeah, well, it is an amazing story, as you said, Ingenet. I mean, this is a guy who you would think had other career ambitions.

Certainly an Olympic athlete can parlay usually that fame and that success to a much more legitimate lifestyle going forward. You know, I know a lot of the Olympic snowboarders. I was in and worked at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics for the FBI. and, you know, it is an amazing kind of, I don't know if you'd call it a fall from grace or an ascension to the criminal upper echelon, but certainly it is an amazing story that, you know, the world he was in, and I know snowboarders, and they're not the, you know, they're kind of a laid-back group, they're kind of the surfers of the snow world. You know, they're all friends and they're very laid-back people to see somebody from that world then go on and to be this or alleged to be this really, you know, highest level cut

throat, murdering people, international, you know, cartel leader, if you will. It really is an amazing kind of transformation, a journey that, you know, took him obviously down the wrong path. But yeah, they want him pretty bad. They want him badly. I mean, they're offering a $15 million dollar reward. And I think your characterization transformation is probably more accurate than fall from grace for sure. The thing that is so stunning to me is what you mentioned. I think of snowboarders and I think of this like chill, you know, chilled dudes. I don't think about somebody who's going out and ordering hits and acting like basically a thug. And that's what he's accused of being is a major league thug this new photograph that they've released of him you know with

laying in the bed and he's he's laying there he's got the tattoo he's got his shirt off I'm looking at it it doesn't look like a selfie to me I guess it could be it doesn't look like it like it like I don't know what it says to you it almost kind of has like a pillow talk kind of look to it to me like I'm like did a woman take this and passed this on. It's like, what's going on here? I mean, I think when I first, yeah, when I first looked at that, I mean, you know, scars marks and tattoos are standard verbiage that law enforcement uses for people that,

you know, you're trying to identify. And, you know, and I think that when I first saw that picture, I think the tattoo is much more important than the face. They wanted to get that tattoo out. And if you notice, the tattoo is prominently displayed on his chest there. And it's a large tattoo and it's a pretty unique tattoo. And I see, I think, you know, somebody that's living in Mexico, what do we do in Mexico? We go to the beach a lot.

It's hot there. We lay out in the sun. And so I think they wanted to get that image out. Look, he's got a beard in the picture. You can shave a beard. You can dye your hair. You can cut off your hair. And there's also, obviously, there's some rumors out there that he has had plastic surgery or whatever.

Now, to modify that tattoo would take, you know, you could cover it with black, you know, ink, or you could try to take it off, but that caused scarring. So anything he does to try to alter. that tattoo is going to be obvious. So if you see a guy with a tattoo, a big black patch over his, that side of his chest, that's kind of a clue. That's kind of a giveaway. Or if he tries to alter it, usually leave scarring, which is obvious also. So I think his face in that picture is less important than the tattoo. I think that's what they wanted to get out, is that tattoo because people do go shirtless in Mexico because of the weather most of the year. And so I think that, you know,

and even if he tries to alter the tattoo, that's going to be obvious as well. You can change your facial appearances by gaining weight or losing weight, shaving a beard, changing your hair color, shaving your head. But the tattoo is much more of a permanent body mark. And then if you try to change it, it's also kind of a permanent mark. So I think when I first saw that picture, I said they really want to get that tattoo prominently out there in the public eye. Well, the tattoo, I think you're right,

is incredibly important, incredibly important, but I worry about the person who may have taken that photo and passed it along. It just, and it looks like it's been altered a little bit, maybe with filters or something. It just, it looks like it's been enhanced in some fashion. And I'm sure the feds didn't do that. I'm sure the person who maybe took the photo did that. I mean, he's a dangerous guy, allegedly, I should say. You know, he's been indicted. But what they're alleging in this indictment. It's like stuff you hear about in mob movies. It's stuff that you see on Netflix, you know, on on narcos or something like that. But these are things that happen in real life. How many people do you think within his organization are cooperating? I mean,

we have unindicted co-conspirators involved and named in this indictment. So somebody's had to have flipped on him along the way. Well, yeah, I mean, and that's always a state of affairs with these guys, and they know that too. They know that when the larger the organization you have, of course, the more money you're making, but also the more distant tentacles you have of your organization that are vulnerable to exploitation by law enforcement, because they're at the lower level, they're not making as much money, they're doing a lot of times hand-to-hand type of stuff that's going to get them arrested. And so, you know, the big of the organization, the more opportunities for law enforcement you have to attack those peripherals, those peripheral tentacles of the organization and then kind of work your way up. And that's what we always did, and that's what they're doing now.

And how far you get up that organizational chart is going to determine your success in going after, you know, the top dogs, as he's alleged to be. you know why is it so hard to catch this one guy i mean he's one guy i mean he's obviously smart enough to grow this empire i mean he was smart enough to grow this organization he must not be dumb um but he's still just one guy so so why is it so difficult to find him because a lot of the photos that they have released it almost they looked like surveillance photos. It looked like they had been watching him for a while. Well, in a word, money. You know, when you're a fugitive, we always talk about money, how important money is and cash money, usually, but money. Money buys you insulation. Money buys you protection. Money buys you,

you know, corrupt police officers or corrupt judges or corrupt mayors. Money buys you a lot of things. And the level that he's alleged to have been operating at is a, monstrous amount of money. And so money buys you that insulation. It buys you that capability to stay off the radar, to, you know, even if you're on the radar, to buy the radar. And so, you know, in a word, money is what makes getting after this one particular individual difficult if, in fact, he was operating at the level that he's alleged to been operating at because, I mean, we're talking about when you talk about Pablo Escobar, you're talking about people at that level, El Chapo, he's been, you know, the Sinaloa cartel. You know, so when you're talking about

operating at that level, you're talking about a tremendous amount of money that they have to stay on the run, to stay insulated from law enforcement. But there's also a $15 million reward being offered. I mean, is that in this world of drug cartels, I guess $15 million, maybe if you're part of this organization or part of his inner circle that hasn't been arrested and indicted and charged. Is $15 million chump change? I'm not, I'm not turning on him for $15 million. No, it's not chump change. And my time working, you know, large international drug organizations, I found that there's always a group of people in that organization that have risen as far as they're going to rise. They're kind of the middle managers, if you will, if you

were looking at a company, so to speak. And they're disenfranchised. They're dissatisfied with their rise because they've stalled in the organization. They're not going to go any higher and they're making what they're making. And, you know, they get a little bit jealous. They get a little bit envious, whatever. And they're not making the big money as the guys above them are making. And if they have a chance to see, oh, 15 million, I can move away. If I got 15 million, what could I do? I could become anonymous. I could turn these guys all in and buy myself a little island somewhere and disappear. And so that's a big enticement. So that's why they keep pushing that 15 million because there are people in that own organization who are probably dissatisfied for one reason or another.

There always is in large organizations. And so that money can represent for them that ticket out of the life because usually that life ends in your own death before old age. And so it could be a ticket out. It could be your final. You've been thinking about getting out. You've wanted to get out. You didn't know how to get out. And now this kind of this kind of payday can give you, you know, and if you do come across, you know, they might offer you witness protection. They might offer you something. And then you're still going to get this money. That's a big enticement for people. How long do you think it will take to catch Ryan Wedding if they do catch him? That depends, I think, on a number, a couple of different things. It depends on the people in

this organization if he if he if he's pissed anybody off if if anybody's dissatisfied with his leadership um because when somebody ascends to a leadership position in one of these organizations it's usually not linear and it's usually at the expense of somebody else who thought they were going to rise to the leadership position the ultimate leadership position and so there's usually factions within every every one of these organizations that are vying for the top spot um we see this in mafia families we see it in cartels and so you know that he ascended to the top if in fact that's true there are probably other people that thought they should have gotten to the top and so it depends on how how dissatisfied they

were how mad they are that they didn't get to the top position um they could be assets for you know a government prosecution uh it also depends on the money i had a drug kingpin escaped to jamaica he was a jamaican national back he escaped back to the islands of jamaica it took me a number he had a bunch of money um it took me seven years um they took him into custody and they delayed extradition ultimately his money ran out and they extradited him back to the United States but it was all about the money it was all about the money he had to keep him out of jail and then once he was in jail he was using what money he had left to delay extradition and ultimately he ran out of that money and then they extradited him so it

also depends on how much money he has at his disposal because now that he's wanted now that he's you know all over the media how effective can he be as the leader of that organization so that's going to determine how much money he has or access to the money he has. So, again, it oftentimes comes back to the money. And so does he have that leadership position strong? Is it strong for him? And so, you know, can he kind of hang out in a mountaintop Mexican mansion with security all around him?

How long? That's expensive. How long can he do that for? Is he still running the organization? it all depends on that kind of stuff. But the more fame he gets, John Gotti in the mafia world was really the first one to kind of become

like a public figure and enjoy it. They always kind of don't want the limelight. So the more famous we make him, the more like well-known we make him, hopefully the less effective he can become at running this organization. I don't know that to be true. But that's a theory

that sometimes is being pursued. Is he just traveling around, do you think, with lots of cash, you know, just stashes of cash? So he can be on the move a lot if he needs to be? Yes and no. I think he does have a lot of cash. But also, remember, these cartels have ingrained themselves in a lot of Mexican society legitimate organizations or semi-legitimate organizations. They have companies that they can draw a salary from, like what looks like appears to be a legitimate salary. So he could be on the payroll somewhere of some company in a fake name, getting a paycheck every, you know, week or whatever.

So, yes, you could have cash and he could have what is, you know, not really legitimate, but a seemingly legitimate source of income from being an employee on one of these companies that the cartel really owns and controls. So is he on the, I don't think he's moving around too much because the more images that we put out of him, the less likely he wants to move around, because if you're in public, you know, your cartel members may be loyal to you, but the general public may not be. So if he's, you know, eating in a restaurant or, you know, out in the public somewhere, somebody else could recognize him. He's probably going to lay low that way. He probably has enough money to enjoy a very lavish lifestyle. Like I said, sitting in a mountaintop mansion somewhere, enjoying, you know, the life and having,

you know, everything done for him, food brought in, food cooked, whatever. whatever. But I don't, I think at the time being, he's probably going to be laying out of the public spotlight too much. Well, we will be keeping our eye out for any new pictures they put out and whether or not they actually capture him. Bobby Chacon, thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Anyone with information about Ryan Wedding's whereabouts can contact the FBI on WhatsApp, signal, or even telegram at 424-495-06. 14, they can also contact their local FBI office or submit a tip at tips.fbi.gov. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Janette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you

back here next time.