December 5, 2025 • 10 mins
What Happens When Your Star Doesn’t Burn as Bright as Your Passion? Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding faced that question . . and is now on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List as an international drug lord. It’s about ambition without brakes and what happens when the skills that make you great — focus, risk tolerance, hunger for status — get redirected into a market where the rules are written in blood. This is Wedding’s descent from the mountaintops to the depths of drug dealing and murder.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Imagine the passion, energy, and consistent hard work it takes
to make it to the Olympics, even when your star
doesn't turn out to burn quite as bright as your passion.
Now imagine those same qualities applied to making it into
the top ranks in the world of international drug dealing.
This is how one guy made it into the top
echelons in both endeavors. I'm Patty Steele, the snowboard phenom
(00:24):
turned drug carteled kingpin. That's next on the back story.
We're back with the backstory. This is a story about
a snowboard champion who made it to the Olympics, but
when he didn't meddle, he threw it all away to
devote his life to the international drug trade. Now, before
we get into it, here's a little quick note for you.
(00:47):
Everything you're about to hear is based on public records, indictments,
media investigations, and law enforcement statements. A lot of the
allegations against Ryan Wedding haven't been proven in court yet.
You see, as of this moment, he's still out there
in that world, a fugitive from justice, but he's presumed
innocent until he's caught and convicted. Okay, let's go back
(01:10):
in time. It's nineteen eighty one and Ryan James Wedding
is born in thunder Bay, Ontario. It's kind of the
perfect scenario for somebody who's obsessed with winter sports. Thunder
Bay with its gorgeous snow capped peaks, and Ryan's family
has snow in their veins. They're a snow family. His
grandparents own a ski resort, Mount Waldy. His uncle is
(01:33):
a ski coach, his dad's a former competitive scaer. Snow
is their passion and their career paths. As a little kid,
Ryan starts out skiing, but eventually he gets into this
still new, still rebellious thing called snowboarding. And he's really
good instantly, I mean really good, winning the first snowboarding
(01:55):
race he ever entered. At just fifteen. He makes the
Canadian national team. He's on everybody's radar. He takes a
bronze medal at the nineteen ninety nine Junior World Championships
and then a silver in two thousand and one. Suddenly
those local slopes in Ontario start looking kind of small
to Ryan, and then comes Salt Lake City. It's the
(02:18):
two thousand and two Winter Olympics and Ryan wedding, is
on the start list for the men's parallel Giant Slalom.
He doesn't medal, he finishes twenty fourth, but he made
it there. He's one of the very few humans on
earth who can say I was an Olympian. That'd be cool, right, Okay.
You'd think that this is the beginning of the story
of a long athletic career, growing as an athlete, with
(02:41):
more competitions, sponsorships, coaching gigs, maybe a quiet retirement in
Whistler giving young snowboarders motivational speeches about never giving up.
But that's not what happens to Ryan. Shortly after his
first Olympics, Ryan quits competitive snowboarding. So what do you
do when you're twenty one and your whole life has
(03:03):
been organized around racing very fast down a hill and
then suddenly you're done. Ryan decides to pivot. He goes
to college in British Columbia and gets into bodybuilding to
make a few bucks on the side. He starts working
as a bouncer at some Vancouver area nightclubs, and that's
when his job in the nightlife brings him into contact
(03:26):
with a lot of low life types. Ryan starts getting
into the weed trade. But he's not just dealing or
growing a few plants at home. He's invested in a
large scale grow operation in British Columbia called eighteen Carrot Farms.
In two thousand and six, cops rate it and find
sixty eight hundred plants, a shotgun, and millions of dollars
(03:49):
worth of weed. Ryan doesn't happen to be present during
that raid, and he's not charged. It's a thrill, and
his pattern becomes high risk and high reward, with a
really high capacity for denial, especially since that first brush
with the law didn't a land him in a cell.
So at this point, say investigators and journalists, marijuana becomes
(04:13):
just not enough. Ryan apparently links up with Iranian and
Russian cocaine smugglers. The money, the danger, the power they
all ramp up. If his Olympic career was about shaving
milliseconds off a run, this new life is about adding
millions to his bank account. But the stakes are changing.
By two thousand and eight, he's trying to buy kilos
(04:35):
of cocaine from what he thinks is a reliable supplier,
but it turns out the supplier is an undercover US
federal agent, Ryan is convicted and sentenced to four years
in prison. Now, for some folks, prison is a hard stop,
but for others it's a networking event. Insiders say Ryan
(04:57):
uses those years not to get out of the drug business,
but to learn how to play at a much higher
level when he gets out of prison. After his release,
Ryan moves to Mexico and he becomes deeply embedded in
one of the most infamous criminal organizations on the planet,
the Sinaloa Cartel. Investigators claim that he rises through the ranks,
(05:20):
becoming a high ranking trafficker, working closely with Sinaloa linked
networks and building his own operation that stretches from Columbia
through Mexico into the United States and Canada. Now it's
the mid twenty twenties and the FBI says Ryan Wedding
is at the center of a transnational drug operation, moving
(05:41):
huge volumes of cocaine up to sixty metric tons a
year billions of dollars in narcotics. He's no longer just
a middleman, say the Feds. He's known as Giant public
Enemy and Elhifa, the boss and violence is a part
of the dark picture. In an October twenty twenty four,
(06:01):
US indictment prosecutors say he's trafficking drugs and ordering killings.
He's linked to the November twenty twenty three murders of
a Canadian couple killed in a mistaken identity hit, as
well as another hit carried out in an ongoing turf wour.
In addition, they link him to the murder in medigyin
Columbia of a federal witness in a US drug case
(06:24):
allegedly shot on Ryan Wedding's orders. Despite having the phase
of a nice looking, mild manner athlete who maybe sells
weed on the side, Ryan's now a guy involved in
full blown narcopolitics, money murder, manipulation, and putting the hit
on anyone who might talk. In twenty twenty four, US
(06:47):
authorities launch what they call Operation Giant Slalom, a multi
agency probe targeting Ryan's network, not the Skiing reference. It's
a team effort the FBI, de DYEA, Homeland Security, and
other international partners in Canada, Mexico, and Columbia. They use
(07:07):
wire taps, undercover buys, financial records, messages, and the ever
present shadow of violence is always there, but they don't
get him. In October twenty twenty four, an indictment charges
Ryan in more than a dozen others with everything from
drug trafficking and criminal enterprise to multiple murders, attempted murders,
(07:29):
and weapons offenses. By March twenty twenty five, the FBI
has had enough. Ryan Wedding, one time Olympic snowboarder, is
added to the ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. He's now
one of the most sought after people on the planet,
with a reward of up to ten million dollars for
info leading to his capture and or conviction. They later
(07:52):
raised the reward to fifteen million dollars, the highest on
the list. I mean, think about it. There was a
time when Ryan Wedding's face on a poster mean hey,
come watch this guy's snowboard for Canada. Now the poster
reads armed and dangerous call. The FBI authorities have closed
in on his assets, including seizing a rare thirteen million
(08:15):
dollar Mercedes roadster tied to him in La but Ryan
himself remains a ghost, believed to be hiding in Mexico
under cartel protection. The question is why did this happen
to a guy who seemingly had it all headed for
the top. Psychologists say for people who have focused on
(08:35):
a sport for their whole life, the fall is hard.
Sometimes you just don't make the next team, sponsorships don't appear.
You're twenty one years old, and the identity of you've
had since you were a kid evaporates. Some former Olympians movement, coaching, broadcasting,
or business. Others spiral. If your baseline for excitement is
(08:59):
hurtling down an icy mountain in front of cameras, your
normal might be skewed. You look for other high adrenaline
environments because you already have a comfort with high risk,
a craving for that adrenaline, and a belief that you
can beat the odds. So far, he has beaten the odds,
but how long can one guy hide? I hope you
(09:21):
like the Backstory with Patty Steele. I'd love it if
you'd subscribe or follow for free to get new episodes
delivered automatically, and feel free to dm me if you
have a story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook,
It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm
Patty Steele. The Backstory is a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks,
(09:44):
the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer
is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jay Kushner. We have new
episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out
to me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram
at Real Patty Steel and on Facebook at Patty Steele.
Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the
(10:05):
pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.
Imagine the passion, energy, and consistent hard work it takes
to make it to the Olympics, even when your star
doesn't turn out to burn quite as bright as your passion.
Now imagine those same qualities applied to making it into
the top ranks in the world of international drug dealing.
This is how one guy made it into the top
echelons in both endeavors. I'm Patty Steele, the snowboard phenom
(00:24):
turned drug carteled kingpin. That's next on the back story.
We're back with the backstory. This is a story about
a snowboard champion who made it to the Olympics, but
when he didn't meddle, he threw it all away to
devote his life to the international drug trade. Now, before
we get into it, here's a little quick note for you.
(00:47):
Everything you're about to hear is based on public records, indictments,
media investigations, and law enforcement statements. A lot of the
allegations against Ryan Wedding haven't been proven in court yet.
You see, as of this moment, he's still out there
in that world, a fugitive from justice, but he's presumed
innocent until he's caught and convicted. Okay, let's go back
(01:10):
in time. It's nineteen eighty one and Ryan James Wedding
is born in thunder Bay, Ontario. It's kind of the
perfect scenario for somebody who's obsessed with winter sports. Thunder
Bay with its gorgeous snow capped peaks, and Ryan's family
has snow in their veins. They're a snow family. His
grandparents own a ski resort, Mount Waldy. His uncle is
(01:33):
a ski coach, his dad's a former competitive scaer. Snow
is their passion and their career paths. As a little kid,
Ryan starts out skiing, but eventually he gets into this
still new, still rebellious thing called snowboarding. And he's really
good instantly, I mean really good, winning the first snowboarding
(01:55):
race he ever entered. At just fifteen. He makes the
Canadian national team. He's on everybody's radar. He takes a
bronze medal at the nineteen ninety nine Junior World Championships
and then a silver in two thousand and one. Suddenly
those local slopes in Ontario start looking kind of small
to Ryan, and then comes Salt Lake City. It's the
(02:18):
two thousand and two Winter Olympics and Ryan wedding, is
on the start list for the men's parallel Giant Slalom.
He doesn't medal, he finishes twenty fourth, but he made
it there. He's one of the very few humans on
earth who can say I was an Olympian. That'd be cool, right, Okay.
You'd think that this is the beginning of the story
of a long athletic career, growing as an athlete, with
(02:41):
more competitions, sponsorships, coaching gigs, maybe a quiet retirement in
Whistler giving young snowboarders motivational speeches about never giving up.
But that's not what happens to Ryan. Shortly after his
first Olympics, Ryan quits competitive snowboarding. So what do you
do when you're twenty one and your whole life has
(03:03):
been organized around racing very fast down a hill and
then suddenly you're done. Ryan decides to pivot. He goes
to college in British Columbia and gets into bodybuilding to
make a few bucks on the side. He starts working
as a bouncer at some Vancouver area nightclubs, and that's
when his job in the nightlife brings him into contact
(03:26):
with a lot of low life types. Ryan starts getting
into the weed trade. But he's not just dealing or
growing a few plants at home. He's invested in a
large scale grow operation in British Columbia called eighteen Carrot Farms.
In two thousand and six, cops rate it and find
sixty eight hundred plants, a shotgun, and millions of dollars
(03:49):
worth of weed. Ryan doesn't happen to be present during
that raid, and he's not charged. It's a thrill, and
his pattern becomes high risk and high reward, with a
really high capacity for denial, especially since that first brush
with the law didn't a land him in a cell.
So at this point, say investigators and journalists, marijuana becomes
(04:13):
just not enough. Ryan apparently links up with Iranian and
Russian cocaine smugglers. The money, the danger, the power they
all ramp up. If his Olympic career was about shaving
milliseconds off a run, this new life is about adding
millions to his bank account. But the stakes are changing.
By two thousand and eight, he's trying to buy kilos
(04:35):
of cocaine from what he thinks is a reliable supplier,
but it turns out the supplier is an undercover US
federal agent, Ryan is convicted and sentenced to four years
in prison. Now, for some folks, prison is a hard stop,
but for others it's a networking event. Insiders say Ryan
(04:57):
uses those years not to get out of the drug business,
but to learn how to play at a much higher
level when he gets out of prison. After his release,
Ryan moves to Mexico and he becomes deeply embedded in
one of the most infamous criminal organizations on the planet,
the Sinaloa Cartel. Investigators claim that he rises through the ranks,
(05:20):
becoming a high ranking trafficker, working closely with Sinaloa linked
networks and building his own operation that stretches from Columbia
through Mexico into the United States and Canada. Now it's
the mid twenty twenties and the FBI says Ryan Wedding
is at the center of a transnational drug operation, moving
(05:41):
huge volumes of cocaine up to sixty metric tons a
year billions of dollars in narcotics. He's no longer just
a middleman, say the Feds. He's known as Giant public
Enemy and Elhifa, the boss and violence is a part
of the dark picture. In an October twenty twenty four,
(06:01):
US indictment prosecutors say he's trafficking drugs and ordering killings.
He's linked to the November twenty twenty three murders of
a Canadian couple killed in a mistaken identity hit, as
well as another hit carried out in an ongoing turf wour.
In addition, they link him to the murder in medigyin
Columbia of a federal witness in a US drug case
(06:24):
allegedly shot on Ryan Wedding's orders. Despite having the phase
of a nice looking, mild manner athlete who maybe sells
weed on the side, Ryan's now a guy involved in
full blown narcopolitics, money murder, manipulation, and putting the hit
on anyone who might talk. In twenty twenty four, US
(06:47):
authorities launch what they call Operation Giant Slalom, a multi
agency probe targeting Ryan's network, not the Skiing reference. It's
a team effort the FBI, de DYEA, Homeland Security, and
other international partners in Canada, Mexico, and Columbia. They use
(07:07):
wire taps, undercover buys, financial records, messages, and the ever
present shadow of violence is always there, but they don't
get him. In October twenty twenty four, an indictment charges
Ryan in more than a dozen others with everything from
drug trafficking and criminal enterprise to multiple murders, attempted murders,
(07:29):
and weapons offenses. By March twenty twenty five, the FBI
has had enough. Ryan Wedding, one time Olympic snowboarder, is
added to the ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. He's now
one of the most sought after people on the planet,
with a reward of up to ten million dollars for
info leading to his capture and or conviction. They later
(07:52):
raised the reward to fifteen million dollars, the highest on
the list. I mean, think about it. There was a
time when Ryan Wedding's face on a poster mean hey,
come watch this guy's snowboard for Canada. Now the poster
reads armed and dangerous call. The FBI authorities have closed
in on his assets, including seizing a rare thirteen million
(08:15):
dollar Mercedes roadster tied to him in La but Ryan
himself remains a ghost, believed to be hiding in Mexico
under cartel protection. The question is why did this happen
to a guy who seemingly had it all headed for
the top. Psychologists say for people who have focused on
(08:35):
a sport for their whole life, the fall is hard.
Sometimes you just don't make the next team, sponsorships don't appear.
You're twenty one years old, and the identity of you've
had since you were a kid evaporates. Some former Olympians movement, coaching, broadcasting,
or business. Others spiral. If your baseline for excitement is
(08:59):
hurtling down an icy mountain in front of cameras, your
normal might be skewed. You look for other high adrenaline
environments because you already have a comfort with high risk,
a craving for that adrenaline, and a belief that you
can beat the odds. So far, he has beaten the odds,
but how long can one guy hide? I hope you
(09:21):
like the Backstory with Patty Steele. I'd love it if
you'd subscribe or follow for free to get new episodes
delivered automatically, and feel free to dm me if you
have a story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook,
It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm
Patty Steele. The Backstory is a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks,
(09:44):
the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer
is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jay Kushner. We have new
episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out
to me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram
at Real Patty Steel and on Facebook at Patty Steele.
Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the
(10:05):
pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.
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