The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has seized a 2002 Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR Roadster linked to former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding as part of “Operation Giant Slalom” – an ongoing investigation into an alleged international drug-trafficking organisation said to involve Wedding and a network of associates. Ten defendants were arrested in November under a nine-count federal indictment connected to the operation and 11 suspects are now in custody.
Wedding remains at large and is believed to have abandoned the CLK GTR Roadster – one of just six built and valued at around $13m – as his alleged criminal enterprise came under increasing pressure from US, Canadian and Mexican authorities. The Bureau, which added him to its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list in March 2025, believes he is currently hiding in Mexico.
When Wedding was added to the FBI’s Most Wanted list, authorities offered a reward of $10m for information leading to his capture. That figure has since climbed to $15m under the US State Department’s Narcotic Rewards Program.
Wedding’s organisation was allegedly responsible for importing around 60 metric tons of cocaine per year from Colombia, through Mexico and into the US, generating more than $1bn annually. If convicted, Wedding faces a maximum sentence of life in US federal prison.
‘Whether you’re a kingpin or a dealer on the street, anyone who sells drugs to our kids will be arrested and prosecuted,’ said US attorney general Pamela Bondi. ‘Ryan Wedding controls one of the most prolific and violent drug trafficking organizations in this world and works closely with the Sinaloa Cartel. We will not rest until his name is taken off the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted List, and his narco-trafficking organisation lies dismantled.’
The FBI has not disclosed where the CLK GTR Roadster was physically seized, although US media report that it was recovered in California after passing through specialist dealership Curated Vintage Supercars in Miami.
According to reporting by CBC News, the Roadster was previously owned by the Abu Dhabi Royal Family before being acquired in 2024 by Curated, which had sourced it for rapper Drake. The Drake deal reportedly collapsed, but the dealer was obliged to complete its purchase from the original seller, leaving the CLK GTR in the dealership’s inventory.
Documents obtained by Canadian media show that the car was subsequently sold to Toronto-based jewellery dealer and professional poker player Rolan Sokolovski, whose company Diamond Tsar is recorded as the buyer.
The US Treasury Department has since designated Sokolovski as one of Wedding’s ‘chief money launderers’, and supposedly helped clean hundreds of millions of dollars of drug money into cryptocurrency and high-value luxury assets such as the Mercedes.
The CLK GTR Roadster is one of 28 road-going homologation models built to satisfy the GT1 regulations that brought Mercedes to Le Mans against the Porsche 911 GT1 and McLaren F1 in the late 1990s. Just six were produced in open-topped form, and the seized car – powered by a 620bhp 6.0-litre V12 – appears to be in pristine condition with only 22km showing on its odometer.
The FBI has yet to confirm whether the car will be auctioned. The Mercedes is said to be one of a number of luxury assets – including high-end cars and motorcycles – that Wedding’s organisation used to conceal the proceeds of crime.
