Wedding allegedly runs one of the world's largest drug trafficking operations, and is believed to be the dominant cocaine distributor in Canada.[4] FBI director Kash Patel has compared Wedding to major drug lords such as Pablo Escobar and Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.[5] Wedding was arrested in Mexico on January 22, 2026.[6]

Early life

Ryan James Wedding was born on September 14, 1981, in Thunder Bay, Ontario, the eldest of three children. His maternal grandparents owned the Mount Baldy ski resort in Thunder Bay. His uncle was the director of a ski school and coach of the Canadian women's National Alpine Ski Team.[7] His father was an engineer and former competitive skier who, when Ryan was 12, moved his family to the Greater Vancouver suburb of Coquitlam, British Columbia, which is where Ryan began his snowboarding career.[8]

Snowboarding

Wedding won the first snowboarding race he entered and, at 15, made the Canadian National Ski Team. He won a bronze medal in the parallel giant slalom event at the 1999 Junior World Championship and a silver medal in the 2001 Junior World Championships.[9] At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, he competed for Team Canada in snowboarding men's parallel giant slalom, where he finished 24th. After this, he gave up competitive snowboarding.[10]

Criminal conduct

A wanted poster for Wedding released by the FBI

After the 2002 Winter Olympics, Wedding moved back to Vancouver and attended Simon Fraser University. He developed an interest in bodybuilding and started working as a bouncer. After two years in university, he dropped out and began to speculate in real estate, which he financed by growing marijuana at a 6,800-plant warehouse on a suburban property called Eighteen Carrot Farms. In 2006, the RCMP raided the farm and found a shotgun, ammunition, and $10 million worth of cannabis. Wedding was not on the property at the time and there was not enough evidence to charge him.[8]

He expanded his operation when he joined up with Iranian and Russian cocaine smugglers.[9][11] In 2010, he was convicted of attempting to buy cocaine from a U.S. government agent in 2008, for which he was sentenced to four years in prison.[12][13][14] He was released in 2011, and around that time he allegedly began his criminal enterprise.[5]

On October 17, 2024, Wedding was charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with "leading a transnational organized crime group that engaged in cocaine trafficking and murder, including of innocent civilians". He is charged with multiple felonies, including drug trafficking, leading a criminal organization, three counts of murder, and one attempt to commit murder.[15][16] He was one of sixteen people to be charged as part of Operation Giant Slalom in a joint investigation by several federal agencies.[17] The murders that Wedding is accused of having carried out were of married couple Jagtar Sidhu, 57, and Harbhajan Sidhu, 55, and of Mohammed Zafar, 39. The Sidhus were killed in November 2023, while Zafar was killed in May 2024.[18] Wedding is believed to have ordered the murders alongside Andrew Clark, who has been charged with the April 2024 murder of Randy Fader, 29.[19]

According to authorities, since his release, Wedding fled to Mexico and became a high-ranking member of the Sinaloa Cartel, Mexico's largest drug cartel, where he is known by the nicknames "El Jefe", "Giant" or "Public Enemy".[20][21] The alleged second-in-command of Wedding's trafficking ring was arrested in Mexico in October 2024.[22][23]

Wedding is accused of having ordered the murder of a federal witness in Medellín, Colombia, in January 2025.[24] On March 6, 2025, Wedding was added to the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list,[3][25] replacing Alexis Flores.[3] The FBI initially offered a reward of up to US$10 million for his capture,[25] which increased to US$15 million in November 2025 after Wedding was indicted on charges of witness intimidation, murder, and money laundering.[26] In November 2025, the FBI announced the arrest of six more defendants in the case, including an attorney for Wedding.[5]

Wedding was arrested in Mexico on the night of January 22, 2026

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5825541&forum_id=2...id#49612152)