Olympian turned ‘drug kingpin’ has £30m superbike fleet auctioned off after FBI bust
Ex-Olympic snowboarder turned alleged cocaine baron Ryan Wedding is having his £30 million superbike fleet auctioned off after being busted by the FBI
Ryan Wedding is having his £30million superbike horde flogged to the public(Image: FBI)
A Winter Olympian who allegedly swapped the snow slopes for a £1billion cocaine empire is having his jaw-dropping £30million superbike horde flogged to the public. Ryan Wedding, 45, dubbed “El Jefe” by underworld henchmen, is alleged to have lived a lavish life of crime before an international FBI dragnet brought down his mega-bucks enterprise, according to US court papers.
Punters can now bid on 62 of his prized motorbikes after Mexican authorities announced a major auction in Mexico City on November 11. The fleet includes iconic two-wheeled beasts from Ducati, Kawasaki, Honda, MV Agusta, Suzuki and Yamaha, with some classic 1960s rarities starting at £850 and climbing to £100,000.
The FBI claim the adrenaline-junkie even raced several of the high-octane vehicles in professional events.
Punters can now bid on 62 of Wedding’s prized motorbikes in a major auction(Image: FBI)
Alongside the bikes, asset agency Indep is offloading the alleged drug lord’s wider haul of playthings, including armoured vehicles, aircraft, boats and fine art.
They also uncovered two Olympic gold medals and a 2002 Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR Roadster worth an eye-watering £10m, snapped up via Toronto jeweller Rolan Sokolovski, an alleged chief money-washer for the gang.
Prosecutors claim Wedding’s fortune came from flooding Canada with 60 tonnes of cocaine every year through alliances with brutal Mexican and Colombian cartels, laundering the cash via an “extensive transatlantic network”.
Prosecutors claim Wedding’s fortune came from flooding Canada with cocaine(Image: Getty Images)
However, his career initially started in elite sport. The son of ski resort owners, Wedding was a teenage prodigy who made Canada’s national snowboard team at just 15.
His life took a dark turn after bombing out in 24th place at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
Quitting the sport, he spiralled straight into major narcotics, doing a four-year US prison stretch in 2009 after walking into an undercover FBI sting for 24kg of cocaine.
Wedding’s collection includes motorbikes from Ducati, Kawasaki, Honda, MV Agusta, Suzuki and Yamaha(Image: FBI)
Wedding allegedly teamed up with Mexico’s feared Sinaloa cartel upon release, building an empire that US justice officials compared to Pablo Escobar’s reign.
Court documents allege the network enforced ruthless violence, ordering the execution of anyone “perceived to be a threat to the enterprise’s operations” – including alleged hits on an FBI witness and the mistaken-identity slaughter of an innocent Ontario family.
After a decade on the run and a spot on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, Wedding surrendered at the US embassy in Mexico City in January.
He remains behind bars in Los Angeles, denying all charges of murder, money laundering and drug trafficking ahead of his trial.
