Canadian ex-Olympian pleads not guilty to 17 felonies including drug trafficking

Ryan Wedding, the Canadian former Olympic snowboarder accused of cocaine distribution and orchestrating several murders, appeared on Monday in a southern California courtroom for arraignment.The 44-year-old has been charged with drug trafficking, conspiracy to murder, witness tampering and money laundering, among other charges. Authorities allege that after his snowboarding career, Wedding “turned to a life of crime” as a narcotics trafficker and led an organization that moved cocaine from South America to the US and Canada.He is also accused of directing the “drug-related” murders of two members of a family in Ontario in 2023, the 2024 murder of another victim in Canada over a drug debt and the January 2025 murder of an associate, and FBI witness, in Colombia.During his first appearance in court in Santa Ana on Monday, Wedding pleaded not guilty to 17 felony charges laid out in two indictments. He will remain jailed without bond as ordered by the US magistrate judge John D Early.There was a reward of up to $15m for information leading to his arrest. Wedding, who was wanted by the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), was taken into custody last week after reportedly surrendering at the US embassy in Mexico, Mexican authorities announced.However, Anthony Colombo, Wedding’s attorney, told reporters after the arraignment that his client had not surrendered and was apprehended, CBC reported.“The indictments are not evidence, they’re just an accusation,” he said, adding that Wedding was in “good spirits” and “mentally tough”, according to the outlet.Wedding allegedly worked with the Sinaloa Cartel and oversaw an illegal drug operation that generated more than $1bn a year. His alleged enterprise was said to be the largest supplier of cocaine to Canada, according to a separate 2024 indictment from his home country.At a press conference on Friday, Kash Patel, the FBI director, compared Wedding with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and Pablo Escobar, describing him as the “largest narco-trafficker in modern times”.“This individual and his organization and the Sinaloa Cartel poured narcotics into the streets of North America, and killed too many of our youth and corrupted too many of our citizens,” Patel said. “That ends today.”US authorities have said that Wedding’s operation trafficked some 60 tons of cocaine a year, but that figure does not appear in the indictment, and security experts have expressed skepticism about the comparisons to El Chapo.“There’s no indication [Wedding] controls territory, nor that he’s at the head of an armed militia, nor that he’s a major player politically,” Stephen Woodman, a security analyst in Guadalajara, Mexico, told the Guardian last week.The next court date in the case is 11 February, according to a statement provided by the US attorney’s office for the central district of California. His trial is scheduled to begin 24 March.The Associated Press contributed reporting