A former Olympic snowboarder has been charged with running a drug smuggling operation that allegedly shipped large quantities of narcotics across the border and killed four people, the FBI said Thursday.

A $50,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest of Ryan James Wedding, 43, who represented Canada at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. Wedding is now considered an armed and dangerous fugitive, the FBI said.

Wedding, a Canadian citizen living in Mexico, is one of 16 defendants charged by California prosecutors with running a “transnational drug trafficking operation that routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine across America,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement declaration.

The gang’s leaders “orchestrated multiple murders in furtherance of these drug crimes,” Estrada said.

Wedding – who reportedly uses the names ‘El Jefe’, ‘Giant’ and ‘Public Enemy’ – is charged with eight felonies. He was previously charged with operating a continuing criminal enterprise, murder and conspiracy to possess, distribute and export cocaine.

A second man, Andrew Clark, 34, another Canadian citizen living in Mexico and whose aliases are “the Dictator,” was arrested by Mexican police on October 8 and remains in custody. Both men face life in prison if convicted. Several members of the gang have been arrested and are expected to make their first court appearances next week in Los Angeles, Michigan and Miami.

Prosecutors allege the gang shipped as much as 827 pounds of cocaine in one month, from Mexico to Southern California and then to Ontario, Canada.

“The agents of the cocaine trafficking organization stored the cocaine in stash houses before delivering it to the transportation network’s couriers for transportation to Canada using long-haul semi-trucks,” prosecutors said.

Wedding and Clark are also accused of directing the killings of two people in Ontario in November 2023 in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment.

“As alleged in the indictment, an Olympic athlete turned drug lord is now accused of leading a transnational organized crime group engaged in cocaine trafficking and murder, including of innocent civilians,” Estrada said.

Matthew Allen, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Los Angeles, said the drug ring had “triggered an avalanche of violent crimes, including brutal murders” and that “Wedding, the Olympic snowboarder, went from navigating slopes to contouring a life of ceaseless crimes.”

Already during the investigation, conducted in collaboration with LAPD police in Ontario, officers have seized more than a ton of cocaine, three firearms, dozens of rounds of ammunition, more than $250,000 in U.S. currency and more than $3.2 million in cryptocurrency.