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Ryan Wedding, a snowboarder who completed for Canada, was a footnote in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. He finished in 24th place in the men’s parallel giant slalom, soon after retired from snowboarding and, according to U.S. officials, headed down a murderous path.
Wedding, 44, pleaded not guilty to charges of becoming a cocaine smuggling kingpin responsible for multiple drug-related murders in a U.S. federal court in Santa Ana, California, on Monday Jan. 26, according to Reuters.
"He went from an Olympic snowboarder to the largest narco-trafficker in modern times," FBI Director Kash Patel said at a recent news conference.
Wedding was charged with "running and participating in a transnational drug trafficking operation that shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine, from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California, to Canada and other locations in the United States, and whose leaders orchestrated multiple murders in furtherance of these drug crimes,’’ according to the indictments.
Wedding is accused of directing the murders of two people, the attempted murder of a third person and of ordering the killing of another person, according to Reuters.
Patel also has compared Wedding to Pablo Escobar, the former head of the Medellin Cartel. Escobar, who died in 1993 during a shootout, was convicted of drug trafficking, racketeering and murder.
Wedding was the subject of an internal manhunt before he was arrested in Mexico on Jan. 22. He then was flown to the United States to face criminal charges.
Law enforcement officials consider Los Angeles the hub of Wedding's drug distribution network.
Contributing: Mark Giannotto
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ex-Olympian Ryan Wedding pleads not guilty to drug, murder charges
Continue reading...
Wedding, 44, pleaded not guilty to charges of becoming a cocaine smuggling kingpin responsible for multiple drug-related murders in a U.S. federal court in Santa Ana, California, on Monday Jan. 26, according to Reuters.
"He went from an Olympic snowboarder to the largest narco-trafficker in modern times," FBI Director Kash Patel said at a recent news conference.
Wedding was charged with "running and participating in a transnational drug trafficking operation that shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine, from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California, to Canada and other locations in the United States, and whose leaders orchestrated multiple murders in furtherance of these drug crimes,’’ according to the indictments.
Wedding is accused of directing the murders of two people, the attempted murder of a third person and of ordering the killing of another person, according to Reuters.
Patel also has compared Wedding to Pablo Escobar, the former head of the Medellin Cartel. Escobar, who died in 1993 during a shootout, was convicted of drug trafficking, racketeering and murder.
Wedding was the subject of an internal manhunt before he was arrested in Mexico on Jan. 22. He then was flown to the United States to face criminal charges.
Law enforcement officials consider Los Angeles the hub of Wedding's drug distribution network.
Contributing: Mark Giannotto
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ex-Olympian Ryan Wedding pleads not guilty to drug, murder charges
Continue reading...
