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In a twist that even the finest Hollywood screenwriters couldn’t script, a former Olympic snowboarder has ditched the slopes for a new “career” as a drug smuggling kingpin, raking in more chaos than gold medals. Ryan James Wedding, whose Olympic glory in Salt Lake City 2002 likely left him with a taste for the extreme, now finds himself on the FBI’s Most Wanted list after being charged with running a drug operation that’s allegedly shipped enough narcotics to put drug lords in the ‘Rookie of the Year’ department.
The FBI’s announcement on Thursday was quite the buzzkill at the local rink, especially as a $50,000 reward is up for grabs for anyone with information leading to this notorious fugitive, who’s reportedly gone full action movie villain mode and is now considered “armed and dangerous.” Because clearly, nothing says “Olympic athlete” like a name change to “El Jefe” and a side hustle in murder!
Now residing in Mexico, the man who once carved his name into the slopes has apparently decided that bad decisions are a universal sport; he joins 15 other defendants indicted in California for heading a “transnational drug trafficking operation” — which translates to “mostly just making bad choices with snow and cocaine instead of snowboards.”
Investigators allege that Wedding, alongside his merry band of misfit criminals, orchestrated murders like a DJ at a rave, all in service of their drug-crime symphony. According to U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada, the operation was so prolific it could have likely provided a whole season of “Breaking Bad” plot twists.
In a gripping turn of events, Wedding and his accomplice Andrew Clark — also known as “the Dictator” (clearly aiming for the role of villain in the sequel) — now face life in prison where they’ll likely swap tales of athletic prowess melded with criminal genius, proving that every Olympic story really does have a dark side.
As they orchestrated the smooth smuggle of a whopping 827 pounds of cocaine in a single month (because why not go big or go home?), the team’s operation was the very essence of “why do we even bother with regulation?” Rather than using their powers for good, it appears they instead chose to create the worst kind of “team-building” experience imaginable.
And for those hoping for a redemption arc, things don’t look bright; they’re accused of taking two lives in Ontario in a drug heist gone terribly wrong, which sounds like a plot twist best left to the worst crime dramas on late-night cable.
“An Olympic athlete-turned-drug lord” may have been the last line anyone expected to read, but here we are! Law enforcement now has their eyes set on cracking down on this “slippery slope” of criminality, saying that the once-glorious Wedding has traded in his medals for a life navigating the margins of legality. The Drug Enforcement Administration’s Matthew Allen warned that their operations have “triggered an avalanche of violent crimes,” showcasing the dramatic irony of someone who once raced downhill now plummeting straight into the underworld.
Thus far, investigators have managed to seize more than a ton of cocaine, a few firearms, several rounds of ammunition, over a quarter-million dollars in cash, and a staggering $3.2 million in cryptocurrency. Just think, if only that entrepreneurial spirit had been channeled into something more productive—like a “Snowboarding against Drugs” campaign!
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