The former Olympian is accused of orchestrating multiple murders and operating a transnational drug organization that moved thousands of kilos of cocaine.
Former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding, who is accused of being a drug kingpin, pleaded not guilty Monday to drug and murder charges.
Wedding, 44, was arrested last week in Mexico, where, federal authorities said, he spent years operating a billion-dollar drug trafficking organization accused of moving 60 tons of cocaine from Colombia to the United States and Canada.
Wedding, who is Canadian and represented Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics, is also accused of orchestrating the murder and attempted murder of government witnesses, including one who was gunned down at a restaurant before he could testify against Wedding.
Wearing a jailhouse jumpsuit and shackled at the legs, he appeared in a Southern California federal courtroom Monday. Wedding acknowledged his name when the judge asked and said he understood the allegations.
Wedding was ordered held without bail until trial. His attorney, Anthony Colombo, told reporters that Wedding was doing great and that he was in “good spirits.”
Wedding faces multiple drug conspiracy counts and four counts of murder and attempted murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and drug crime.
At a news conference last week, FBI Director Kash Patel compared Wedding to Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and Pablo Escobar, the Mexican and Colombian former drug lords.
Wedding was added to the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list last year. The State Department had offered a reward of $15 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction.
According to an indictment unsealed last year, Wedding’s organization sourced its cocaine in Colombia in cooperation with a paramilitary group and drug cartel. The group worked with Mexican drug cartels to use boats and planes to ship hundreds of kilos to Mexico before it was smuggled across the U.S. border, according to the indictment.
Most of the cocaine was stored in Southern California’s Inland Empire region before it was distributed in Canada, the indictment says.
Wedding previously served two years in federal prison in the United States on a cocaine distribution charge. He was released in 2011 and founded the drug trafficking organization identified in the indictment as the Wedding Criminal Enterprise.
The man accused of being Wedding’s top lieutenant, Andrew Clark, was arrested and charged last year with helping run the organization and ordering the murders and attempted murders of five people.
Clark pleaded not guilty. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.