Last fall, FBI charges against an alleged drug kingpin made more headlines than usual because the suspect just happens to be a former Olympic snowboarder. Ryan Wedding, who was 43 when the charges were filed and who remains at large, competed for Canada in the 2002 Games. So how did he go from young athlete to alleged drug lord, somebody accused of ordering three murders in the course of overseeing cocaine shipments to Canada? A story by Jesse Hyde at Rolling Stone digs in, revealing that Wedding's criminal life appears to have begun in benign fashion. While a student at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver (the plan was to become a stockbroker) he began working as a bouncer at local clubs and got a first-hand introduction to the city's booming—and illegal—marijuana market.
"Wedding's descent into this world was no different than how one gains entrée into any legitimate industry," writes Hyde. "He made friends who became connections. He networked." The would-be stockbroker dropped out of college after two years, and one acquaintance tells Hyde he began growing pot, "lots of it." His connections deepened, culminating in a 2009 arrest that resulted in jail time. Upon release, instead of going straight, he graduated to the "big leagues" of Montreal, and, if authorities are correct, established himself as a major player in the city's drug trafficking network.
Wedding is thought to be in hiding under the protection of cartels, perhaps in Mexico or Colombia. How long can he hide? "It's pretty hard to hide a six-foot-four white guy," says the former FBI agent who arrested Wedding in 2009. "He's in a part of the world where he's going to totally stick out, and I don't see him being the kind of guy who is OK hiding out in a bunker for the next 20 years." Read the full story. (Or check out other longform recaps.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
