$10-million reward now offered for capture of accused violent drug trafficker Ryan Wedding
An Olympic snowboarder accused of orchestrating murders while running a transnational drug trafficking enterprise has been added to the FBI’s list of its 10 most wanted fugitives.
A federal arrest warrant was issued for former Coquitlam resident Ryan Wedding in September 2024 in a United States District Court. However, while many of his accused co-conspirators have been arrested in recent months, Wedding has avoided capture.
The FBI initially offered a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to Wedding’s apprehension. However, the reward is now $10 million, according to an announcement Thursday from Akil Davis with the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.
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“The alleged murders of his competitors make Wedding a very dangerous man, and his addition to the list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, coupled with a major reward offer by the State Department, will make the public our partner so that we can catch up with him before he puts anyone else in danger,” Davis stated in a press release.
The organization committed “greed-driven crimes” from Colombia to Canada, stated Drug Enforcement Administration special agent in charge Matthew Allen in a previous release.
Known as El Jefe, Wedding allegedly led an organization that shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico into Southern California, where it was distributed to Canada and across the United States, as well as overseas.
After shipping cocaine from Mexico to Los Angeles, Wedding’s network allegedly stored the narcotics in stash houses before packing it into long-haul semi-trucks and ferrying it over the border into Canada, according to an indictment from the United States Department of Justice.
Wedding is linked to several murders including the November 2023 killing of Jagtar Sidhu and his wife, Harbhajan Sidhu. Police called the crime a case of mistaken identity, according to reporting by The Province.
Wedding and an associate are also accused of ordering a murder over a drug debt in May 2024.
While investigators believe Wedding is in Mexico, he may also be living in: “the United States, Canada, Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, or elsewhere,” according to the release.
Wedding is described as being six-foot-three and approximately 240 pounds with blue eyes. He sometimes sports a beard and/or a mustache.
Wedding’s aliases include James Conrad King and Jesse King.
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