The Current - Ryan Wedding: From champion snowboarder to FBI's most wanted

Episode Date: November 25, 2025

Ryan Wedding is now at the centre of one of the biggest international crime investigations in the world. He's wanted in connection with multiple drug and conspiracy crimes, including ordering and orchestrating murder. He's one of the FBI's most wanted criminals and there's a reward of up to $10 million US for any information that could help catch him. We speak with journalist Jesse Hyde who's been covering Wedding for over a decade about how he went from Olympian to alleged drug kingpin.

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Donate at lovescarbro.cairbo. This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. 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. That's FBI director Kash Patel talking about former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding. Ryan Wedding is at the center of one of the biggest international crime investigations in the world,

wanted in connection with multiple drug and conspiracy crimes, including ordering and orchestrated, murder and running a billion-dollar drug cartel. He is one of the FBI's most wanted criminals. Last week, 10 people were arrested in connection with Ryan Wedding, but he remains elusive. There is a reward of up to $15 million U.S. dollars for any information that could help catch him. Jesse Hyde is a journalist. He's been covering Ryan Wedding for over a decade. Jesse, good morning. Good morning, Matt. You wrote a fascinating piece in Rolling Stone magazine about this guy. And the question that everybody is asking is how does somebody who's a high-performance

athlete from Thunder Bay, Ontario, ends up competing for Canada and the Olympics get wrapped up in the world of drugs? Yeah, I mean, I think that's what initially drew me to the story is in almost every way Ryan doesn't fit the stereotype of people who get involved in drug trafficking.

And that's, I mean, I think for me, in covering drug trafficking for two decades, both sides of the border, a lot of times you find that the stereotypes kind of fall apart. But Ryan's a really unique case and that it comes from a lot of privilege. And, you know, with most people who get involved, there's a certain level of desperation, you know, and that's kind of what drives it. And with Ryan, that certainly wasn't the case. He's a trust fund kid.

His parents were wealthy and subsidized his time in sport, but also in business. What do you think the attraction to this life was? for him. So when he was arrested the first time, or at least the United States back in 2009, I spent some time with his family, with friends of his. He was born in Thunder Bay, but when he was pretty young, he moved to Vancouver. His dad was an architect. And what people said is that Ryan didn't have any fear.

In fact, his snowboarding, he was in snowboard racing. But you see, you know, a lot of kids, they think they don't have fear. But really, when it comes to it, you're going, you know, however fast, 75 miles an hour down a mountain, the fear will creep up. And with Ryan, he just never saw any fear. And then I think the other thing was back then, I mean, people forget this, but, you know, marijuana was ubiquitous. And not just that, but, like, British Columbia was sort of the gold standard, even globally, you know, B.C. but. and so there were so many people that were in the business

and it wasn't really looked down upon there wasn't much of a stigma and you know you could I mean he got busted for a really big grow house in the suburbs of Vancouver and it's sort of like a slap in the wrist so I think it's it's

fairly easy to get involved at least in his case you know and then from there why you know why he stays involved I think is uh is kind of the more street and part of the story. He was, he was busted and initially, I mean, showed some remorse,

but then as you mentioned, was arrested in San Diego, spent some time in prison and seemed to spend that time in prison, what, plotting how to get back into the game? How do you understand that? Yeah, exactly. So that was one of the more surprising things when I revisited the story. So last October, the US attorney announces charges against him. And, you know, somehow in that span he had transformed himself from somebody who the first time back in 2009 the way we saw it Rolling Stone was sort of you know like bumbling didn't really know what he was doing got nabbed really quickly but calling back sources from that first case I talked to the FBI agent who had arrested him in San Diego and he said they had been listening to phone calls that as you said publicly there was

remorse but behind the scenes it was like he was almost using that this is according to the FBI agent he was almost using that time to prepare to get out, making connections, and that really his intention was as soon as he would get out, he was going to start back up. So how would you characterize the scale of the enterprise that he is allegedly at the center of now? People call him El Hefei, billion dollar cocaine king. What is he, what is he allegedly involved in? It's massive. I mean, I think people, and I understand why, I mean, this was what drew me to story too, but they hear snowboarder, you know, team Canada. And I think they don't quite grasp that, you know, people throw around these terms, global drug kingpin. He really is. I mean,

according to, again, these are all allegations at this point. And, you know, that's worth noting just because a lot of times with drug cases in the U.S., what's initially charged doesn't end up holding up. But let's assume these charges are all true. what was initially announced as he was moving 60 tons of cocaine a year from through Mexico into Los Angeles and up through the United States and Canada. So those are annual revenues exceeding a billion dollars. And I think what really speaks to Ryan's global significance is that he's still on the run. You know, when these charges were first announced, sources I talked to in the FBI, the U.S. Attorney's Office,

they said, oh, it's a matter of weeks, maybe months before we catch him. You know, and here we are a year later, and he's still on the run. Is that because he is associated with or protected by cartels in Mexico? Yeah, the law enforcement say. Basically, what they have said is that he's under the protection of the Sinaloa cartel, which even though that's fractured and it's not what it was before the capture of Alchapo, it's still considered the most powerful, the most violent drug trafficking organization in the world. And so what law enforcement have told me is that as long as Ryan Wedding is seen, not just seen,

but as long as he's able to keep his transportation networks up and running, then he's a value to them and they'll continue to protect him. But I think a lot of people are still trying to understand this. Somebody in your piece says to you, in their words, it's pretty hard to hide a six-foot-four white guy. I mean, how is it that 10 years in, he's still a ghost? There are these occasional photos of him that turn up, but nothing more than that. Yeah, that's a fantastic question. I mean, he's had plastic surgery.

We know that. But I think part of it speaks to how significant and how powerful he is. You know, in January of this year, the lead witness, who had been identified as the lead witness, was murdered in Medell, Columbia. And if you look at what the Department of Treasury in the United States announced last Wednesday, his network is global. I mean, it's not contained to Canada, the U.S. or Mexico. They identified people who launder money for him, who've acted as his bookkeeper. You know, one of them is a Canadian jeweler, another one's a former Italian Special Forces member.

There's people in the U.K. So, I mean, what we know based on what the FBI has said is that he's on the scene of a lot of cartel. But, I mean, when somebody's getting murdered in Medellin, Colombia, it may be much bigger than that. You quote his mother in your Rolling Stone piece, and she says, you can have every opportunity and still take the wrong path, but it doesn't mean you're a bad person. What do you make of that? And how do you square these two parts of it? his life yeah so at that point you know this was in 2009 and i think his family and and ryan himself it was easy to see that as he's really young youthful indiscretion makes a mistake you know

his mother was obviously disappointed um but at that point ryan was willing to accept the consequences and and move on um i've never been able to talk to him since then i i i I've obviously wanted to, but that's the question I have, too, is, you know, what makes them tick and why has he been at this so long? And I think oftentimes the easy answer is greed, but oftentimes the drug business, you know, people, it's not just the drug mules who owe somebody. You know, there's that phrase they say in Mexico, Plato Ploma, silver lead. Sometimes even the people at the top, they're underwater. They owe people. And so sometimes people stay in it because of that, because they have to.

What to you is the most fascinating part of the story? Well, for starters, you know, why? Why? I think most people, they get into jail and they're, you know, quote unquote, scared straight. It was really intriguing to me to get no fear, had no intention of doing that at a really young age. And, you know, why has he still been doing it all these years? And I think the final thing is, why can't anybody catch him? You know what I mean? It's actually been since 2015 when the RCMP in a really big case called Operation Harrington was trying to catch him. He was one of their main targets. He was known as El Chapo's man. So he's been a ghost, you know, since then, over 10 years.

Do you think it's inevitable? I mean, it's only FBI and the attorney's office in the United States. It's just a matter of time until they turn him over. Well, certainly, again, you know, I haven't had a chance to track down who all these people are and get their side of the store. all these people named. But I mean, it's naming a wife, a girlfriend in Columbia, a madam who, you know, is involved in sex trafficking, an attorney in Toronto who apparently encouraged him to have somebody whacked. You know, if all these people really are his inner circle, then they have certainly infiltrated it and they've figured out who everybody is.

And so there's a tremendous amount of pressure on him. And I'm guessing the FBI would say that one of these people know where he is. So all I would say is they've been telling me for over a year that's just a matter of time. So we'll see. It's some story. Jesse, thank you very much for this. Hey, thanks so much, Matt. Jesse Hyde is a journalist and author.

He's been covering the story of Ryan Wedding for over a decade, wrote a huge piece in Rolling Stone magazine about him. And his investigation is part of an upcoming docu-series in partnership with Rolling Stone Films and the CBC. It's called Snow King, from Olympian to Narco. This has been the current podcast. You can hear our show Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 at 8.30 a.m. At all time zones, or you can also listen online at cbc.ca.ca slash the current or on the CBC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Matt Galloway.

Thanks for listening. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.ca slash podcasts.