A former Olympic snowboarder is accused of running a major transnational drug trafficking organization that shipped huge amounts of cocaine and allegedly hired hitmen to murder several people, federal officials said.

Ryan Wedding, 43, a former Olympian from Canada who now lives in Mexico, is among 16 people charged in a federal indictment, the Justice Department announced Thursday.

The “prolific and ruthless” organized crime group “shipped literally tons of cocaine into the United States and Canada,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said during a news conference.

“They were murderers,” Estrada said. “Anyone who stood in their way was violently attacked. Including murder.”

Wedding is said to have run the multi-billion dollar operation from Mexico for the past 13 years, Estrada said. The organization allegedly transported about 60 tons of cocaine per year, Estrada said.

At one point, the group used the Los Angeles area as a hub for its operations, Estrada said. They allegedly used long-haul trucks to transport cocaine shipments from drug kitchens in Colombia to warehouses in Los Angeles and then transported the cocaine primarily to Canada but also to the East Coast of the United States, he said.

According to Estrada, Wedding and others allegedly made billions of dollars, which they passed on in the form of cryptocurrencies. They are accused of laundering a quarter of a billion dollars from April to September, he said.

Law enforcement authorities have seized more than a ton of cocaine, three firearms, dozens of rounds of ammunition, $255,400 in U.S. currency and more than $3.2 million in cryptocurrency as part of their investigation into the so-called Wedding Drug Trafficking Organization, said the DOJ with.

The indictment also alleges that the operation used hitmen to murder anyone they believed stood in their way. The victims were all executed in Canada so their relatives could watch as they were murdered, prosecutors said.

The victims included two parents who were murdered in 2023 in front of their daughter due to mistaken identity, Estrada said. The daughter was also shot multiple times but survived, he said.

Another victim was killed in May over a drug debt and a fourth was murdered in April, prosecutors said.

The charges in the 16-count superseding indictment include drug offenses, criminal enterprise charges and murder in connection with an ongoing criminal enterprise and drug crimes.

Many of the defendants were arrested in recent weeks in California, Michigan, Florida, Canada, Colombia and Mexico, prosecutors said. Several are expected to appear in court next week in Los Angeles, Michigan and Miami.

Wedding is considered a fugitive and the FBI is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to his capture, federal officials said.

Wedding, whose aliases include “El Jefe,” “Giant” and “Public Enemy,” was already charged in the original indictment and is the lead defendant in the superseding indictment, prosecutors said.

He competed for Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, where he finished 24th in the giant parallel slalom.

If convicted of murder and attempted murder, he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of life in federal prison, the Justice Department said. The ongoing criminal enterprise charges also carry a mandatory sentence of life in federal prison.