Over the course of two decades, Ryan James Wedding went from a promising snowboarder competing in the Olympics to what officials have said is one of the most violent and ruthless criminals in the world, responsible for orchestrating murders and running a billion-dollar cocaine cartel.

FBI Director Kash Patel compared the 44-year-old — whose nicknames include "El Jefe," "Public Enemy" and "Giant" — to Pablo Escobar and Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán. Wedding is accused of ordering a hit on a witness in the U.S. government's case against him and enlisting assassins to murder rival traffickers.

Court documents say that Wedding's crime spree began in 2008, six years after his failed Olympic debut. They detail the alleged dark journey of a young man in his 20s, who got into trouble following

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