Former Olympic snowboarder wanted in US drug trafficking case
CNN
A former Olympic snowboarder for Canada has been charged with running a drug trafficking ring that shipped vast amounts of cocaine across the Americas and killed four people, authorities said Thursday.
A former Olympic snowboarder for Canada has been charged with running a drug trafficking ring that shipped vast amounts of cocaine across the Americas and killed four 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 was living in Mexico and is considered a fugitive. The 43-year-old is charged in the United States with running a criminal enterprise, murder, conspiring to distribute cocaine and other crimes, US prosecutors said. US 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-haul semi-trucks. Wedding, who also faces years-old charges in Canada, is one of 16 people charged in connection with a ring that moved 60 tons of cocaine a year, and four of them remain fugitives, said Martin Estrada, US Attorney in Los Angeles. “He chose to become a major drug trafficker and he chose to become a killer,” Estrada told reporters. Krysti Hawkins, FBI special agent in charge in Los Angeles, said a dozen people were arrested in Florida, Michigan, Canada, Colombia and Mexico in connection with the case. US authorities allege the group killed two members of a family in Canada in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment in what officials there said was a case of mistaken identity as well as two other people, according to officials and federal court filings. Authorities said they seized cocaine, weapons, ammunition, cash and more than $3 million in cryptocurrency in connection with their investigation.
The special counsel stressed his decision was not about the strength of his case against Trump
CNN’s 5 Things brings you the news you need to know every morning.
A Republican senator has blocked the promotion of a general who oversaw the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, according to a source familiar with the matter, as President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to go after the officials involved in the withdrawal.
Special counsel Jack Smith said Monday that he is dropping his election subversion case against President-elect Donald Trump, seeking the case’s dismissal in a court filing with the judge.
President Joe Biden tapped into his presidential pardon power in the waning days of his time in office Monday, granting clemency to a pair of lucky turkeys and kicking off the holiday season.
The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a challenge from major tobacco companies to the Food and Drug Administration’s requirement that they place graphic health warnings on cigarette packages and in advertisements.
The family of Ajike “AJ” Owens, a Black mother of four who was shot and killed by her neighbor during an ongoing dispute over children playing near the neighbor’s home, says the 60-year-old white woman deserves “the maximum penalty under the law,” according to a statement.
Despite his campaign promises to leave the issue to the states, President-elect Donald Trump’s administration will shape the national landscape around abortion and reproductive health.
The criminal cases of actors Jussie Smollett and Bill Cosby, both Black, high-profile entertainers found guilty before their convictions were overturned, differ widely in details but share some parallels.
Uruguayans went to the polls Sunday for a second round of voting to choose their next president, with the conservative governing party and the left-leaning coalition locked in a close runoff after failing to win an outright majority in last month’s vote.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are determined to force federal employees to return to the office in hopes that some will opt to quit instead. That effort is going to affect some agencies – and workers – much more than others.