Canadian Olympian-turned-alleged-drug-kingpin

As mentioned, before today’s arrest, Wedding had spent more than a decade running from authorities while allegedly operating a violent transnational drug-smuggling empire.

He has several descriptive nicknames — El Jefe (The Boss), Giant, Public Enemy and Buddy — and authorities have compared him to Pablo Escobar. 

He was previously charged with running a continuing criminal enterprise, murder, attempted murder and conspiring to possess, distribute and export cocaine. 

For years, Wedding’s story has attracted a lot of attention across Canada — and inspired many snow puns. That’s partly because before he was alleged to be trafficking white powder, he was gliding through it as a Canadian Olympian. 

Born to a snow sports family in Ontario, Wedding showed promising talent as a snowboarder early in life. He ultimately competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah, where he choked and didn’t medal. He quit professional snowboarding soon after — and then transitioned into drug trafficking. 

In 2008, Wedding was arrested during a police sting operation in the U.S. after he tried to purchase 24 kilograms of cocaine to smuggle into Canada. He was convicted the following year and sentenced to 48 months in prison, with time served. During his trial, he reportedly voiced remorse for his actions.

In the years following Wedding’s release from prison, he and his associates were allegedly procuring and trafficking cocaine from Colombia into Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. By the end of 2025, he was on the FBI’s top 10 most-wanted list, with authorities offering a whopping $15 million US reward in exchange for information leading to his arrest.