Former Canadian Olympian guilty in cocaine conspiracy

Former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding was convicted in a San Diego, Calif., courtroom Monday of conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine.

It took a jury 2 1/2 hours of deliberating at the start of the day to find the man guilty of the charges filed against him in June 2008.

He will be sentenced on March 11, 2010, just weeks after the conclusion of the Vancouver Olympics, in which, his lawyer told a court, the 28-year-old had hoped to participate.

Wedding faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in a U.S. jail.

His two co-accused in the case, Vancouver businessman Michael Krapchan and North Vancouver’s Hassan Shirani, earlier pleaded guilty in the cocaine case. Krapchan is already serving his sentence while Shirani, who testified for the U.S. government earlier this month against Wedding, will be sentenced Friday.

Wedding was arrested on June 13, 2008, three days after he arrived in Los Angeles from Vancouver.

The government had taped conversations of Wedding in which he appeared to be a willing participant in the scheme to purchase 24 kilos of cocaine to transport back to B.C.

The former snowboarder arrived in California June 9, telling an undercover operator the next day that the trio didn’t have the money immediately available.

“Obviously, I didn’t put it in my suitcase,” Wedding said on tape.

The B.C. group paid the confidential informant $17,000 for the first kilo.

After the deal was done, Shirani and Wedding were picked up at a San Diego hotel where Wedding had rented a room.

Wedding was born in Thunder Bay, Ont., where his grandparents operated a small ski hill, and was a member of the Canadian National Snowboard Team from 1995-2002. His family moved to Coquitlam, B.C., in 1991.

He ended up 24th in the 2002 Olympics and claimed in U.S. court documents to be training for 2010. However, the National Snowboarding Federation denied Wedding’s claim that he was still a contender.

Vancouver Sun