Over the past two decades, Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding’s career has gone off the rails. Once celebrated as a top athlete, Wedding has since taken a dark turn, landing him on the infamous ‘wanted list.’ This, of course, is not the kind of fame anyone strives for.

Well, Ryan Wedding was part of the 2002 Winter Olympics at Salt Lake City. Although, he was unable to make a standout finish, coming 24th overall in the parallel giant slalom event as a snowboarded. However, things took a wild turn when he went from representing Canada to being flagged as a perpetrator in the country and now beyond its borders too.

Ryan Wedding is wanted by the FBI

Per ESPN, former sportsman Ryan Wedding allegedly ran a d**g trafficking circuit. This saw him get involved in distributing enormous amounts of c**aine across the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Columbia, via “long-hail semitrucks.” As of now, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has offered $50,000 for credible information leading to his location, possible arrest, or extradition.

Per a U.S. attorney, named Martin Estrada, the 43-year-old former sportsman chose this path of life. Estrada also added that along with 16 others, Ryan Wedding has been convicted as part of a ring that circulated more than 60 tons of the said d**g a year. Also as per Krysti Hawkins, a FBI special agent, Wedding has been confirmed as a fugitive, while nearly 12 people have been arrested so far, linked with the case. Plus, ammunition, nearly $3M in cryptocurrency, and a significant amount of cash has been seized so far too.

Meanwhile, US authorities allegedly claimed that Ryan Wedding was involved in an incident related to the death of a family of two back in Canada. But it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity per the officials there. This, and two other deaths have also been related to man, Ryan Wedding.

It is not that he wasn’t earlier identified for his wrongdoings. He has charges pressed against him in Canada for trafficking that go as far back as 2015. Not only that, in US itself, Ryan Wedding was detained in 2008 and sentenced to prison in 2010 for he was found guilty. But, after being released four years later, he went straight back to the dark path, only deeper this time. And well, the way he used aliases to conceal his identity, as he did previously under the names “El Jefe” and “Public Enemy,” indicate his constant attempts of escaping custody.

However, this wasn’t always the case. Ryan Wedding once lived the life of a sportsman until he had a few controversy flare ups and now, things have gone way down south.

Ryan Wedding’s life as an Olympian and former controversy

Born and raised in Canada, snowy mountains slopes were a regular sight for Ryan Wedding. He took to snowboarding early as a child, when the sport’s popularity peaked in the 1990s. And on reaching the Winter Olympics stage, he finished last among his triad of compatriots. With a 38.61 qualification time, he fell short of entering Round of 16.

But if you speak of controversies, he was engulfed in them just 3 years after, for his first search warrant got issues in 2005 in British Columbia. He was accused of growing mar**uana but he never got charged. But 2008, in San Diego he was arrested and after a jury trial, he was convicted and jailed.

Surprisingly, during the 2010 trial, Ryan Wedding confessed before the U.S. judge that he was “ashamed that I became part of the problem.” This is because a large chunk of his life, encouraged kids to incline towards sports, go to school and stay ‘clean.’ Ironically, when he released after a 4 year imprisonment, he resumed his activities.

Fast track to 2015, he was named on a warrant in Nova Scotia too. There, Ryan Wedding and a fellow guy had 45 charges pressed against them in total. Later on, a few investigations revealed overseas links, to Mexico and Columbia. All in all, Ryan Wedding has his hands dirty in a several illicit activities. How he detoured down this road from sports, no one knows. But punishments seems unavoidable for him now.