Former Olympian Ryan Wedding pleads not guilty in Santa Ana court

Disgraced Olympian Ryan Wedding smirked as he was hauled into California court in shackles Monday — denying that he ran an El Chapo-like drug empire that the judge called “a crime of violence.”

Sporting a full beard and greasy, slicked-back long hair, Wedding entered the federal courtroom in Santa Ana wearing beige prison garb and a bright-orange T-shirt, shackled at the wrists and ankles and escorted by three US Marshals.

In the packed courtroom, which included alleged victims, Wedding sat to the right of his attorney Chris Columbo, smiling broadly and laughing at times as the two spoke before the brief proceedings began.

But his mood visibly darkened as US Magistrate Judge John D. Early ordered him held at Santa Ana Jail without bond, citing the violent nature of the allegations.

Wedding spoke very little, acknowledging he understood the complaint, confirming his name and whether he’d read the two federal indictments against him.

He said “not guilty” when the judge asked him how he was going to plead to the 17 felony charges.

Wedding, 44, who represented Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, had eluded authorities for more than a decade, ultimately landing on the FBI’s list of 10 most wanted fugitives last March, with a $15 million bounty for information leading to his capture.

The bureau said his capture in Mexico on Jan. 22 dealt a major blow to a sprawling international criminal network – FBI Director Kash Patel called Wedding one of “the largest narco traffickers in modern times,” comparing him to infamous former Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Feds busted 36 other individuals believed to be connected to Wedding’s alleged drug empire, which used Los Angeles as its main US hub, ferrying hundreds of kilos of cocaine through the SoCal region, then on to Canada and other locations across the US, authorities said.

Wedding was previously arrested in San Diego in June 2008, convicted in federal court in 2009, and released from prison in 2011.

His next appearance in the current case is scheduled for a Feb. 11 status conference, and his jury trial is set to kick off March 24, according to the court.

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