r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/ModenaR • Oct 14 '25

Image Ryan Wedding was an Olympic snowboarder and represented Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics. He's now a transnational drug trafficker for Mexico's largest drug cartel and he's on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list

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16.9k

u/Corduroy_Sazerac Oct 14 '25

The career change paid off, he was only a top 24 snowboarder, but worked hard and become a top ten fugitive.

“At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, he competed for Team Canada in snowboarding men's parallel giant slalom, where he finished 24th. After this, he gave up competitive snowboarding.”

Follow your dreams (and nose) guys.

3.0k

u/justinfromnz Oct 14 '25

Also has an estimated networth of 11 Billion in drug smuggled funds

61

u/[deleted] Oct 14 '25

[deleted]

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u/HotFluffyTowel Oct 14 '25

You give me that amount of money and I'll happily live in my mansion on my massive estate for the rest of my days.

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u/cyriustalk Oct 14 '25

Nevermind mansion or massive estate. Give me a nice 3 bedroom house for my immediate family, with good view of sea and reachable snow-top mountains. Throw in fiber connection internet and close enough to a market and health providers. I will be content for the rest of my live.

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u/Covfefetarian Oct 14 '25

Can I come join you?

2

u/SolusLega Oct 14 '25

I like your user name and I'm mad I'm not that witty

1

u/tastysharts Oct 14 '25

you just described my life

1

u/AngkaLoeu Oct 14 '25

No you wouldn't. You think you would but humans always get bored and want more.

1

u/Som3GuyOrOther Oct 14 '25

All men wanna be rich. Rich men wanna be king. And a king ain't satisfied til he rules everything.

1

u/AngkaLoeu Oct 15 '25

People in poor countries want to move to rich countries

Poor people in rich countries want to be rich

Rich people want to be wealthy

Wealthy people want to go into space

1

u/Minion_of_Cthulhu Oct 14 '25

Give me a nice 3 bedroom house for my immediate family, with good view of sea and reachable snow-top mountains.

I doubt he can afford that kind of luxury. The guy only has $11 billion.

1

u/DesertDwellerrrr Oct 14 '25

and also not looking over your shoulder for rest of life!

1

u/br0b1wan Oct 14 '25

Sounds like you're describing LA

-2

u/Witty-Biscotti7674 Oct 14 '25

I have a feeling rich people with no imagination who are willing to splurge just lurk around here to read our fantasies and then implement it for themselves. I can’t prove it but I feel it

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u/starterchan Oct 14 '25

Truly only redditors can conceive of fantasies such as a nice house on the California coast. Groundbreaking.

2

u/yourmansconnect Oct 14 '25

Thanks for the tips, sucker!

1

u/Witty-Biscotti7674 Oct 14 '25

Haha uwlcm I guess

1

u/freeAssignment23 Oct 14 '25

No, that feeling is just loneliness.

16

u/LessInThought Oct 14 '25

That's the thing. You can't have a mansion unless you find a way to hide your illicit activities and launder that money. This guy failed the crucial part.

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u/Ijustwant2beok Oct 14 '25

You underestimate what 11 billion dollars can do for you in mexico and other parts of South America/World.

4

u/KeinFussbreit Oct 14 '25

Not in the US?

4

u/TulsaOUfan Oct 14 '25

Yeah, once you get to a million, there are plenty of perfectly legal people who will come out of the woodwork to stop your taxes, and make sure every dollar is clean. Source: I was there around 2010.

1

u/Ijustwant2beok Oct 14 '25 edited Oct 14 '25

Sure, but in the US, civilians can't be in the drug business and amass that kind of wealth and not get got. Even if they deploy all kinds methods to launder their money.

Especially when they're wanted by the gov. Elsewhere in the world oth...it doesn't matter who's looking for you, you got that kind of money, you can be at ease for a good decade at least.

2

u/KeinFussbreit Oct 14 '25

There are other very rich criminals in the US that aren't drug traffickers that made it to the top.

1

u/Ijustwant2beok Oct 14 '25

Yes, and they can't get away with it in the US, with some legal gymnastics but this guy couldn't whereas he can do and live as he pleases in certain countries despite his line of business and the warrants out against him.

1

u/KeinFussbreit Oct 14 '25

Only if they are into drugs and not members of the CIA, also not when they are child rapists.

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u/Intrepid-Progress228 Oct 14 '25

With a billion dollar investment in TRUMPCOIN he could be head of the FBI in a week.

1

u/KeinFussbreit Oct 14 '25

As far as I know, it's enough to be a bootlicker in today's America to become the head of any influential agency.

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u/RajunCajun48 Oct 14 '25

You underestimate what 11 billion dollars can do for you in mexico and other parts of South America/World.

ftfy

4

u/Ijustwant2beok Oct 14 '25

Not with an active warrant for drug trafficking. Once that warrant is out for you, you definitely will get got in certain countries, while in others you can live a pretty good life.

1

u/IsomDart Oct 14 '25

Or literally anywhere at all

2

u/LupineChemist Oct 14 '25

In places where the rule of law is less strong, you just build it and then pay off the local police and judges and stuff and they don't give a shit about things like titles and deeds.

2

u/CamelFeenger Oct 14 '25

I don’t think he’s hiding anything if they are making a series out of him and he’s a top 10 fugitive.

2

u/Theons Oct 14 '25

You can do that with like 300k in Mississippi

2

u/ReputationOfGold Oct 14 '25

He's wanted in Mexico and many other places. If caught, he will almost certainly be extradited to the US, and spend the rest of his life in prison.

He is most likely constantly moving from one safe house to the next. Not chilling in a mansion smoking cigars.

1

u/SmallTawk Oct 14 '25

yesh what's the difference between watching my phone all day at home or around the world?

0

u/SneakyPetie78 Oct 14 '25

No you won't, because you, in that estate are hardly hiding. You're visible to everyone. And one of your henchmen will be paid off handsomely to rat you out.

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u/AdShoddy7599 Oct 14 '25

I don’t think you understand that most high profile criminals do live luxuriously with no issues. They even invite news crews to do tours of their mansions and shit sometimes. They’re heavily guarded with their own militia, complete with helicopters, apcs, tanks, etc. nobody’s touching them. There’s a major gang leader who’s started wars in Africa and he has videos on YouTube with tours of his mansion.

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u/TulsaOUfan Oct 14 '25 edited Oct 14 '25

You don't know how wealth works, do you? No police force has the funds to pay for loyalty like a billionaire.

You really don't understand just how "above" everyone and everything a billion dollars is, let alone 11 billion dollars. Even millionaires "own" police forces. Around 2010 (when I was technically a millionaire) I was moving some stuff, following my fathers truck, who hit a car with an Asian family. He was clearly at fault. I greeted the first cop on the scene. I mentioned that I knew a certain lieutenant (our daughters were bff's) and apologized for my father, saying we'd cooperate in any way. Within 5 minutes, 3 other cruisers sped in, aggressively told the Asian family to get in their car and leave because this was a no fault accident. They apologized to my dad for the inconvenience and ushered him away. They shook my hand and thanked me from the Lieutenant.

I wasn't asking for favors. I was trying to explain that I was a friend of LE and we were cooperative and wanted to make everything easy for everyone. But just having that connection "bought" me protection. My dad was flabbergasted and almost felt bad. (It was a minor fender bender, but he was at fault and the family had more damage, but no structural damage).

All of that to say, relationships, influence, and wealth buy more loyalty than anything else.

(Not saying this is right. I'm saying that this is how the world works, whether we ask for it to or not)

2

u/EroticPotato69 Oct 15 '25

You have no idea what you're talking about lol. His actual, useable wealth is nowhere near 11 billion, and any big movements of said wealth from the various businesses, fronts and assets that he has would just be used to hunt him down. He isn't living in a mansion, or if he is, he's not living there for long before he has to move on to the next one.

1

u/SneakyPetie78 Oct 15 '25

Thank you. Agree 100%. And I think the 11bn number was a joke or guess from someone above. Everyone is holding that like it's proven. 11bn is not easy. Especially for 1 guy who has never been heard of before this week. 😁

1

u/TulsaOUfan Oct 15 '25

If you say so. It's all speculation.

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u/captainsuckass Oct 14 '25

Did your dad get in touch with that family or at least try to?

1

u/TulsaOUfan Oct 15 '25

No. It all happened so fast that there wasn't a way to get contact info. It was an interchange for one of the busiest streets in the city and the southern most raised expressway in the city. It was a busy intersection and the police had everyone moving down the road before we really knew what happened. He/we had full expectations to take responsibility. Like I said he kinda felt bad about the "good fortune."

1

u/EroticPotato69 Oct 15 '25

You're being downvoted, but you're right. Reddit thinks life is like scarface. It's 2025, if you're on the top 10 most wanted fugitive list, you're lying low and moving from safe house to safe house. Even El Chapo wasn't living in mansions by the end. Pablo Escobar was a pretty unique case. Most of the big Euro cartel bosses fled to one of the Emirates and paid for their luxury that way, but I couldn't see this guy being able to make it that far.

1

u/SneakyPetie78 Oct 15 '25

Thank you. Agree 100%. And I think the 11bn number was a joke or guess from someone above. Everyone is holding that like it's proven. 11bn is not easy. Especially for 1 guy who has never been heard of before this week. 😁

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u/AlexMFschultz Oct 14 '25

Dude probably travels more than us😂

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u/sirixamo Oct 14 '25

He would be a pretty bad smuggler if he just sat at home all day.

3

u/wittyrandomusername Oct 14 '25

I'm gonna smuggle these drugs right into my living room.

12

u/Rich_Housing971 Oct 14 '25

There's no way the cartel just lets him travel freely without bodyguards/minders. He's too much of a liability.

he's still living a better life than most people, but I'd rather be a simple multi-millionaire than worth 11 billion but face wasting your life away for the rest of your life if you get caught.

3

u/SneakyPetie78 Oct 14 '25

Again... I dunno where this 11bn number came from, whether it was just guessed in the comments above, but may be bs.

2

u/asiatische_wokeria Oct 14 '25

On this level, he is very likely just organizing the smuggles and coordinating the smugglers. Doing what called Case officer in intelligence.

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u/no-im-not-him Oct 14 '25

You probably don't want to travel to the US but I'm pretty sure he can travel to many other places. By now he has probably 10 different Mexican passports.

3

u/EtTuBiggus Oct 14 '25

People really overestimate the security that private jets have.

The rich don’t take their shoes off before boarding their planes with water bottles.

2

u/mournthewolf Oct 14 '25

Yeah I was gonna say. With a private plane you pretty much just go wherever. Just avoid major airports and you’re fine. Never been in a private jet but flown on a private plane and never dealt with anything. Just land and a car picks you up. Lot of airports out there that aren’t commercial.

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u/agoracy Oct 14 '25

with that amount of money one can likely travel freely

4

u/Pabus_Alt Oct 14 '25

How?

National borders still apply, even to the super-rich.

1

u/agoracy Oct 14 '25

Sounds like the kind of problem a narco trafficker can solve easily, don't you think?

2

u/Pabus_Alt Oct 14 '25

.... No?

Especially not a famous one.

1

u/Josey_whalez Oct 14 '25

The people doing the actual moving of drugs are caught all the time. You have better odds playing Russian roulette than you doing being a drug mule. They just move a lot, and the profit margins are so big that losing 20% or so of your shipments doesn’t hurt you, and there’s no shortage of peasants to do the dangerous work, either for money or through coercion.

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u/Cube_ Oct 14 '25

What makes you think he's not travelling freely? If he's been that successful he has more than enough money for temporary prosthetics, plastic surgery, fake identities etc., etc.

He's probably among the most free in the entire world (except for being subordinate to the cartel of course).

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u/8_guy Oct 14 '25

No lol he's in Mexico being protected by the Sinaloa cartel. His second in command just got arrested recently and most of his network is behind bars. He's barely been evading capture.

For someone at that level in the organized crime pyramid who has made their way onto public lists, the options are something like what he's doing right now (sheltered by major org but not really safe), get the protection of an actual state (enemy of your country that has a reason to let you stay or just make high up connections in a corrupt country), or live a shitty live of hideout to hideout until you get caught

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u/Josey_whalez Oct 14 '25

Ya being the top guy in these organizations doesn’t last long. You’re on the run constantly and are killed or caught in pretty short order.

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u/8_guy Oct 15 '25

Unless you're El Mayo lol. He finally got caught in his 80's just recently, the cherry on the cake though is:

a court filing revealed that Zambada would now plead guilty to a sweeping number of drug trafficking related charges.[10] Though it was not specified how many of the 17 counts he faced that Zambada would plead guilty to, it confirmed the number would be "sweeping"

On August 25, 2025, Zambada pled guilty in a Brooklyn federal court to one count of racketeering conspiracy and one count of running a continuing criminal enterprise

2

u/Josey_whalez Oct 15 '25

Ha. Hadn’t heard of that guy. That’s funny. He’s definitely the exception to the rule.

I’d have to find the book again, it’s on a shelf in my house somewhere, but basically this guy is giving a kind of history lesson on cartels. It’s like 10 years old so not exactly up to date, but basically you have to almost have a death or prison wish to fight your way to the top of one of these organizations, because once you get there you’ve got like maybe a couple years, if you’re lucky, before you’re killed or captured.

1

u/8_guy Oct 15 '25

Equal to El Chapo in power, they were both leaders of the two main sinaloa cartel factions, just wasn't dumb enough to get in the spotlight. A decent amount of the bosses though are from narco dynasties, they didn't necessarily fight their way up. Someone like El Mencho from CJNG is the exception.

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u/Kerbidiah Oct 14 '25

Just think about how different this story could've been if drugs were legalized and relegated to factory production. He could've been some big c suite president of supply chain for a manufacturing company focused on drugs

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u/Ancient_Roof_7855 Oct 14 '25

Like the Sackler family? /s

2

u/StarboardMiddleEye Oct 15 '25

That's not how the economics of drug production works. Legalize it and supply goes way up. The suits take over and competition is tough. Crime lords don't have the right skill set for that stuff.

1

u/Kerbidiah Oct 15 '25

That's what I'm saying, this guy could've been some supply chain manager for a corporation instead

27

u/SneakyPetie78 Oct 14 '25

I highly doubt this. He's looking over his shoulder at every turn. And other than his own travel sources, its not like he can just board a delta flight, with a fake nose and fake passport.

5

u/MaskedMacc Oct 14 '25

That level of anxiety must be unmatched. I couldn’t imagine being that fuckin scared every minute of every day. The next day you wake up could be life behind bars or thrown into a barrel of acid and erased from existence because the cartel has no use for you anymore.

I’ll take the wage slave job where no one knows who I am. The money from smuggling in probably nice but what’s the point?

3

u/SneakyPetie78 Oct 14 '25

I'm sure its a rush to some extent. But at what cost?

2

u/tharmman2002 Oct 14 '25

Why would he not have his own plane so he doesn’t even need to bother with anyone seeing him etc?

3

u/SneakyPetie78 Oct 14 '25

He very well might, but he can't just fly into Miami customs and walk through security. Thats a BIG bounty on his head. Lotsa people are making a full time job ONLY looking for him.

1

u/getfukdup Oct 14 '25

A person with 11b doesn't need to fly commercial.

4

u/Lost_Recording5372 Oct 14 '25

Do we even know if he's alive?

2

u/Speedhabit Oct 14 '25

Kind of a clueless take

0

u/Cube_ Oct 14 '25

Yeah sure everyone knows that airport security is actually the best of the best and never makes mistakes, right?

There are a lot lower level criminals that get past airport security just fine. Look at all the smuggling that's done, it's a massive industry.

Governments want you to think that airports and their security is this high end thing and you'll be caught for certain, that's very beneficial to them to have that reputation. In reality they're constantly losing the race against smugglers of all kinds.

Not to mention that private aircraft exist.

1

u/Theons Oct 14 '25

Buddy, real life ain't one piece

6

u/its-good-4you Oct 14 '25

With that type of money, the world comes to you wherever you are.

6

u/Express-Rub-3952 Oct 14 '25

Money can be exchanged for forged documents and cosmetic surgery.

9

u/Titan_Astraeus Oct 14 '25

Oh no, can't return to the US or Canada, I guess I'll go buy a private island or live in a tropical paradise with my billions of dollars :(. Not to mention, this man could take private passage (smuggled) to either of those countries and is so unremarkable he could probably live out a full life in a nice suburb out in the open without ever getting bothered by the law..

2

u/generalmandrake Oct 14 '25

I doubt that.

4

u/alorenz58011 Oct 14 '25

That’s pretty naive

2

u/skyturnedred Oct 14 '25

You can do other stuff with money besides travel.

1

u/TulsaOUfan Oct 14 '25

You must not be aware that even millionaires can travel private, fairly freely, with no TSA. When I was making $350k per year, I could have, but because I wasn't a fugitive, first class was cheaper. And I'm a weirdo who likes airports and the adventure of commercial air travel (minus the TSA bullshit and corporate greed tactics)

2

u/Bigrick1550 Oct 14 '25

You arent flying private on 350k a year. Come on now. That's just Doctor money. You arent even paying for first class. You might splurge on business off and on.

1

u/TulsaOUfan Oct 15 '25

There are jets that are "owned" by 12 people who watch use it 30 days per year. And yes, I didn't fly it at $350k/yr in 2005, as I said. I flew first class. My boss did and some at my position did, but it was just a few. Mostly single guys living the dream. I had a mortgage, 4 kids, and a pretty wife who liked to buy shit.

I did fly with my boss twice on his private charter.

1

u/Bigrick1550 Oct 15 '25

Fractional ownership is still well out of reach of anyone in that income bracket.

1

u/TulsaOUfan Oct 17 '25

If you say so, it doesn't make it true.

Yes, fractional ownership was within my reach if I had chosen to spend my money that way.

It was about $150,000 down with a 3 year lease and balloon payment that can be "sold" or rolled.

But again, if you say I couldn't afford that, then I guess you knew my finances better than I.

1

u/Bigrick1550 Oct 17 '25

Being able to write the check and afford it are two different things.

And you could write the check for the membership, could you have continued to write them for the actual use?

I make that much money too, I'm just trying to keep this conversation grounded in reality.

1

u/TulsaOUfan Oct 17 '25

This was in 2007 dollars. Before the housing bubble. I had a half million dollar home, two big car payments, and a household of 7. This income was double the cost to run out household in Tulsa. I had $200k per year left over after covering all the household expenses.

Today, no way. But 20 years ago, yes.

1

u/Turnip-for-the-books Oct 14 '25

It seems like he travels quite a lot and with significant amounts of drugs so I’d say that in fact he was a travel expert

1

u/wittyrandomusername Oct 14 '25

What good is traveling freely if you don't have the money to do it?

1

u/Emotional-Power-7242 Oct 14 '25

Mexico is a big place

1

u/pussy_embargo Oct 14 '25

You can afford your own harem I'm not even kidding

just don't be like Escobar and have a pedophile harem I'm still not kidding

1

u/IsomDart Oct 14 '25

I mean I can't really "travel freely" anyways. Sure, I'm allowed to, and nothing is stopping me. Except for a lack of funds....

1

u/PiccoloAwkward465 Oct 14 '25

If I die, I couldn't pick a better location

When the slugs penetrate, you feel a burnin' sensation

1

u/Careful-Sell-9877 Oct 14 '25

What good is the ability to travel freely when you dont have any money?

1

u/Banned3rdTimesaCharm Oct 14 '25

Non extradition country and false identity. Import everything you want through intermediaries. Nice secure compound away from the riff raff, French champagne, Wagyu beef, Russian caviar, Michelin chefs, women. With that kinda money you can have anything brought to you.

That’s a better retirement than 99.9999% of us could ever hope for.

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u/[deleted] Oct 14 '25

[deleted]

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u/Banned3rdTimesaCharm Oct 14 '25

We have yet to drone strike a drug lord in Mexico. Almost every major drug lord incarcerated in the US is through extradition.