LOS ANGELES – A former Olympic snowboarder for Canada has been charged with running a drug ring that shipped massive amounts of cocaine across America and killed several 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 lived in Mexico and is considered a fugitive. Wedding, 43, is charged in the United States with running a criminal enterprise, murder, conspiracy to distribute cocaine and other crimes, U.S. prosecutors said.

U.S. 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-distance trucks. Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder who has also been charged for years in Canada, is one of 16 people charged in connection with a ring that transported 60 tons of cocaine a year, and four of them remain on the run, said Martin Estrada, the U.S. lawyer in the case. Los Angeles.

“He chose to become a major drug trafficker, and he chose to become a murderer,” Estrada told reporters.

Krysti Hawkins, FBI special agent in charge in Los Angeles, said a dozen people have been arrested in Florida, Michigan, Canada, Colombia and Mexico in connection with the case.

U.S. authorities allege the group killed two members of a family in Canada in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment in what officials there say was a case of mistaken identity, and at least one other person. Authorities said they seized cocaine, weapons, ammunition, cash and more than $3 million in cryptocurrency in connection with their investigation.

Wedding competed for Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, authorities said. He finished 24th in the parallel giant slalom.

He faces separate drug trafficking charges in Canada dating back to 2015, said Chris Leather, chief inspector with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

“These charges are virtually unsolved,” Leather said.

Wedding was previously convicted in the U.S. of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and was sentenced to prison in 2010, federal records show. Estrada said U.S. authorities believe he resumed drug trafficking after Wedding’s release and was protected by Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.