Ryan Wedding sports a coy grin and a distinctive chest tattoo in a newly-released photo the FBI has shared in their ongoing bid to locate the former Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned notorious global drug kingpin.
A selfie showing the alleged cartel boss, 44, shirtless and relaxing in bed, is believed to have been taken in Mexico this summer, the bureau’s Los Angeles field office said in a statement Monday evening.
He has a distinctive tattoo of a lion on his chest.
The FBI released the photo on Tuesday, a month after increasing the reward money for Wedding‘s arrest to $15 million.
Wedding now has the highest bounty of any of the FBI’s 10 most-wanted list
Separately, the US Embassy in Mexico published what is believed to be an older photograph of the Thunder Bay, Ontario-born fugitive.
In the passport-style photo, he is wearing a green T-shirt and has a shaven head.
No additional details were provided by officials as to when and where the photo was taken.
“Ryan James Wedding is wanted for allegedly running and participating in a transnational drug trafficking operation that routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California, to Canada, and other locations in the United States,” the FBI said in a statement.
“Additionally, it is alleged that Wedding was involved in orchestrating multiple murders in furtherance of these drug crimes,” the LA office said.
As well as allegedly running a global cocaine empire with the support of El Chapo’s former Sinaloa Cartel, Wedding is also accused of involvement in several murders, including the mistaken-identity killings of a couple.
He is also alleged to have ordered the hit on a federal witness, Jonathan Acebedo Garcia, who was fatally shot in a restaurant in Medellin, Colombia, on Jan. 31 this year, before he could testify against Wedding.
FBI Director Kash Patel previously described Wedding as “the modern-day iteration” of Pablo Escobar and Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
His current location is unknown, but he is believed to be hiding in Mexico under the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Wedding, who competed for Canada as a snowboarder at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah, was added to the FBI’s 10 most-wanted fugitives list earlier this year.
Last month, the FBI warned that Wedding could have drastically altered his appearance and even undergone plastic surgery to evade authorities.
The alleged druglord “might change his hair color, his appearance, and do anything to avoid capture,” Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the bureau’s LA field office, told reporters.
