In their investigation of Ryan Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder who now smuggles drugs, the FBI seized a 2002 Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR Roadster. One of six $13 million CLK GTR Roadsters belonged to Wedding and his partners. The only right-hand-drive Roadster owned by a wanted criminal was Vijay Mallya. Before GTA 6, the FBI confiscated a 2002 Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR Roadster from a former Olympic snowboarder suspected of narcotics smuggling. The seizure was part of the FBI’s investigation of Canadian snowboarder Ryan Wedding, who competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. According to the FBI, Wedding went from a competitive snowboarder to selling 60 metric tons of cocaine per year. The confiscated CLK GTR Roadster is not your typical Mercedes. The Roadster is considerably rarer than the CLK GTR coupe (just 20 were made). This 2002 model sold for $10.2 million at auction in 2023, so we don’t think the FBI’s $13 million post-valuation of the confiscated Roadster is far off. The FBI statement did not say how or where Wedding got the Mercedes, but his cocaine enterprise carried over $1 billion annually. A wedding has been compared to notorious drug lords like Pablo Escobar and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán in the same publication. Wedding was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, and the reward for his arrest was raised to $15 million. We recommend selling the new CLK GTR Roadster to pay for it. Wedding’s CLK GTR Roadster will be the second of six wanted felon autos. The only right-hand-drive CLK GTR Roadster was reportedly bought at auction in 2009 by Vijay Mallya, the former co-owner of the Force India Formula One team and an Indian government extradition target.
