From Canadian Olympic star to Hezbollah-linked Mexican drug lord: The fall of Ryan Wedding

Some 20 years ago, Ryan J. Wedding was a snowboarding star on the Canadian Olympic team. Today, he is a drug lord within the Hezbollah-affiliated Mexican Sinaloa Cartel and is listed among the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted criminals.

Wedding faces serious charges, including murder, money laundering, and drug trafficking. As a result, authorities have offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture. His story is a dramatic fall from fame in sports to infamy in organized crime.

Born in 1981 in Canada, Wedding grew up in British Columbia, where he pursued a professional snowboarding career. At the time, national media praised him as “one of Canada’s most promising winter sports athletes.”

However, Wedding would eventually embark on a life of crime.

“Wedding went from competing on Olympic slopes to flooding the streets of the U.S. and Canada with cocaine,” officials stated. “The murders attributed to him make him an extremely dangerous man.”

According to The Vancouver Sun, the former Canadian sports star ultimately rose to become one of North America's most powerful cartel leaders.

Media outlets eventually referred to him as “Don Corleone, the Canadian version” after he rose to a senior position within the infamous Mexican Sinaloa Cartel. This high-ranking role brought Wedding immense wealth. In the early 2010s, the Sinaloa Cartel reportedly controlled between 40-60% of Mexico’s considerable drug trade, generating approximately $3 billion annually. The criminal network has also played a leading role in the ongoing violence in Mexico, which has already claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Liam Price, head of investigations for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), describes Wedding as a serious threat to Canada’s security.

“He remains one of the greatest organized crime threats in Canada. We are working closely with U.S. and Mexican authorities to ensure he faces justice,” Price warned.

Wedding’s drug crimes have a troubling global dimension, as they are linked to the Iran-proxy terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In 2024, Carrie Thompson, the head of intelligence for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), raised alarms in Congress, confirming the “clear link between drug trafficking and the financing of terrorist organizations and hostile state actors, including the Iranian regime.”

“This is a man who amassed wealth at the expense of countless lives. His ‘empire’ has fueled violence, addiction, and death across multiple countries,” added Matthew Allen, a special agent with the DEA.

Despite suffering significant losses in its war against Israel this past year, Hezbollah remains one of the world’s most powerful and dangerous terrorist organizations. While receiving considerable military and financial assistance from Iran, Hezbollah also finances its terrorism through its vast criminal network, which has strong ties to Mexico and South American countries. Hezbollah’s drug empire includes production facilities in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley and distribution networks in Latin America, Europe and Africa.

In addition to eliminating senior Hezbollah commanders and dismantling its military capabilities, Israel has also targeted Hezbollah’s financial empire.