Former Olympic snowboarder sentenced for drug smuggling

Former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding missed the 2010 games in his hometown this past February.

And now the convicted cocaine smuggler will miss the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia after being handed a four-year prison term in a San Diego courtroom Thursday.

It could have been worse. His conviction last December of conspiring to distribute 24 kilograms of cocaine usually carries a 10-year mandatory minimum. Wedding has been held in custody for two years already.

U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey T. Miller gave the Coquitlam man 48 months in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons, as well as three years supervised release.

Two co-accused in the case who pleaded guilty last year – Vancouver businessman Michael Krapchan and North Van gang associate Hassan Shirani – got lesser sentences in the cocaine smuggling conspiracy.

Wedding competed in the 2002 Salt Lake City games, placing 24th in his event, but has not participated internationally since then. He did claim at his jury trial last fall that he was still an athlete in training for the 2010 games.

Wedding was arrested in June 2008 after a sting in which U.S. agents and an informant purported to be drug traffickers willing to sell 20 kilos of cocaine to the Canadian group.

The arrests were made after a single kilogram was exchanged for cash.

Wedding had been earlier named in a Canadian search warrant as being linked to a house where police found a marijuana growing operation. But he was never charged and had no previous record on this side of the border,

He filed an appeal of the jury verdict in February, which is still outstanding. Since then, all the new filings in the case by Asst. U.S. Attorney Orlando Gutierrez have been under seal.

Wedding argued in his appeal documents that the Canadians only completed the sale of one kilo of cocaine and shouldn’t be found guilty of the broader conspiracy.

Wedding was nabbed on June 13, 2008, three days after he arrived in Los Angeles from Vancouver with Krapchan and Shirani.

The U.S. Attorney led evidence that all three B.C. men worked for Elmar Akhundov, "the leader of the Akhundov drug-trafficking organization based in Vancouver and under investigation in California for money laundering and drug trafficking."

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. He was recorded saying the cash for the cocaine was "waiting" in L.A.

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

Wedding was also caught on tape saying that he and Shirani would "grab one" kilo of coke and "have a look at it" before getting the remaining 23.

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. In his room, hidden in a piece of furniture, police "agents located approximately $100,000 of United States currency."

Wedding denied ever being part of a drug gang and said he only accompanied Shirani to L.A. so he could check out real estate deals.

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 in 1991.