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Ryan Wedding, the former Olympic snowboarder turned alleged drug kingpin, pleaded not guilty in a Santa Ana, Calif., court Monday to multiple charges related to murder and drug trafficking.
The 44-year-old who was born in Thunder Bay, Ont., was arrested in Mexico last week after spending almost 10 years evading authorities in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Colombia and the Dominican Republic.
He faces 17 charges, including conspiracy to export cocaine, continuing criminal enterprise, murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and drug crime and retaliation against a witness, victim or an informant by completed murder.
The crimes are alleged to have been committed in multiple countries, which has sparked collaboration among law enforcement agencies and raised questions about who has jurisdiction to prosecute Wedding.
He was on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted list and the U.S. government offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction.
Here is what we know about the next steps in the criminal case against Wedding.
Anthony Colombo, Ryan Wedding’s lawyer, spoke with reporters outside the courthouse in Santa Ana., Calif., after his client and alleged drug kingpin entered two not guilty pleas. Colombo said it was still early in the proceedings and that ‘the indictments are not evidence, they’re just an accusation.’
When is the next court appearance?
Wedding is scheduled to return to court on Feb. 11 for a status hearing, where parties involved in the case will discuss whether the trial date — set for March 24 — is realistic.
His lawyer, Anthony Colombo, told CBC News he anticipates the parties will agree March is “way too soon” given the complexity of the case and the seriousness of the charges.
“I would say we’re looking at pushing this back at least six months, given the number of defendants charged, the nature and circumstances, the volume of discovery that we’d have to go through,” he said.
Wedding is being held in custody in California in the meantime.
The judge said Monday he could not immediately find conditions that would ensure public safety or Wedding’s appearance in court, but that he would consider bond if Wedding seeks it later.
What penalties is he facing?
Wedding faces an automatic life sentence if convicted on charges related to murder, drug trafficking and witness tampering.
Though Colombo said the case is also eligible for the death penalty, he doesn’t expect the U.S. attorney’s office to pursue that option. He said life without parole is also a possibility.
That’s where Canada’s involvement complicates things, according to Dalhousie University law professor Robert Currie.
“If the death penalty is on the table, Canadian police cannot co-operate with the U.S. to facilitate the investigation anymore,” because Canada does not have the death penalty, Currie told CBC’s Thomas Daigle.
“The entire tilt of our law would suggest that the death penalty puts really significant obstacles in front of the police to be able to co-operate, to send evidence, to send officers to testify in the U.S.”
Currie said Canadian police would also have to back off if prosecutors seek life without parole, which has been deemed unconstitutional in Canada.
There has been some speculation that Wedding could work with investigators and give up some of his collaborators in exchange for a more lenient sentence. Currie says it’s possible that the prosecution and the defence could agree to charge under a slightly lower threshold if Wedding pursues that avenue.
“That would leave room for plea bargaining, it would leave room for co-operation, if that’s what Mr. Wedding wants to do in the end,” Currie said.
What about the Canadian charges?
Wedding is still facing charges in Canada, stemming from a cocaine-import conspiracy uncovered by RCMP in 2015 when he was living in Montreal. His drug trafficking group was the largest supplier of cocaine to Canada, according to a 2024 indictment.
Currie says that while Canada could legally make a request to have Wedding extradited to face those charges, it’s highly unlikely they would do so, given there’s already a “massive law enforcement co-operation effort” underway in the case.
“It seems to me the decision has been made, entirely within the bounds of the law, that all of the prosecutions will happen in the U.S.,” Currie said.
He says Wedding could try to challenge the charges based on jurisdiction, but would likely be unsuccessful, as cross-border crimes are flexible in terms of which countries are able to prosecute.
