Former Olympic Alpine snowboarder Ryan Wedding, 27, from Coquitlam, Canada who competed for Canada in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, has been dealing with a completely different kind of snow storm lately, according to a story in the Calgary Herald.

. . . the former Olympian, who’s in a California prison awaiting trial for cocaine trafficking after two Vancouver co-accused pleaded guilty to their role in the massive smuggling ring. . . The FBI alleges Wedding works for a B.C. drug lord who is under investigation in the U.S. for distributing large quantities of cocaine — up to 20 kilos a week — and laundering millions each month in crime proceeds.

Wedding was arrested in June of 2008 after allegedly doing a smaller drug deal in San Diego, California. Drug agents later found “appoximately $100,000 of United States currency” in a Los Angeles hotel room registered to Wedding. Now, according to a story in the Vancouver Sun, one of the prosecutions key witnesses is a “murder suspect in a B.C. slaying.”

The trial is supposed to begin today (September 8, 2009) with the Honorable Judge Jeffery T. Miller in Courtroom 16 at the San Diego Federal Courthouse. For his part Wedding says he had nothing to do with any cocaine. “Despite wiretap and other evidence against him, Wedding claims he just went to L.A. looking for bargain real estate deals and was not involved in the scheme.”

Would be great for him if that turns out to be true.

[Update September 9, 2009: Due to a "flurry of new motions by both the defense and prosecution" Wedding's trial date has been pushed off until November 16. So it's back to jail for Ryan, according to the Vancouver Sun]

[Link: Vancouver Sun and Calgary Herald]