Powder King: Olympic Snowboarder Is Wanted By The FBI For Running An International Cocaine Ring
Adam Pretty. Getty Images.Guardian -- A former Olympic snowboarder for Canada has been charged with running a drug trafficking ring that shipped vast amounts of cocaine across the Americas and killed four people, authorities said Thursday.
The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and extradition of Ryan James Wedding, a Canadian citizen who was living in Mexico and is considered a fugitive. The 43-year-old is charged in the United States with running a criminal enterprise, murder, conspiring to distribute cocaine and other crimes, US prosecutors said.
US authorities said Wedding’s group moved large shipments of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico and California to Canada and other locations in the United States using long-haul semi-trucks. Wedding, who also faces years-old charges in Canada, is one of 16 people charged in connection with a ring that moved 60 tons of cocaine a year, and four of them remain fugitives, said Martin Estrada, US attorney in Los Angeles.
Okay so before we get going here, let me just make one thing abundantly clear--I am anti-murder. Don't want anyone to ever say that Jordie condones murder. Don't support it, can't have it, no way jose.
With that being said….murder aside, I can't think of a more bad ass life than being a professional snowboarder slash international drug king pin. This is the type of shit they make movies about. Give me a Point Break 2 (we can just disregard the 2015 remake) where the Bodhi character is based off of this Ryan Wedding fella. Again I have to say here that I'm anti-murder. So we can leave that part out of the moving. But the drug smuggling? Moving 60 tons of cocaine a year while also shredding some fresh powder? Yeah, I'd gladly watch 122 minutes of that.
Oh and by the way--the FBI has named this case "Operation Giant Slalom". Which obviously fucking rules.
Once again, I'm not a murder guy. Absolutely despise the fact that murder is a part of this story because other than that, it's rad as heck. Just imagine the scene in the movie where the FBI agent is chasing down Ryan Wedding as they are shredding down a mountain, and the agent lands a massive McTwist as he's evading gunshots down the mountain. It's just too good not to end up on a big screen at some point.
Sidenote: He finished 24th at the Olympics. So I can understand how he ended up in a life of drugs and crime. It's not like Burton was knocking down his door drying to get him to sign a sponsorship. But maybe for the movie we could exaggerate the truth a little bit and make him like a Shaun Palmer type of guy.
Oh and in case I didn't say it yet, I don't condone murder. I actually detest it.