The FBI Just Seized This Ultra-Rare Mercedes CLK GTR Roadster

The FBI has just seized one of only six Mercedes CLK GTR Roadsters ever built as part of an investigation, and that’s only the beginning of the strangeness of this story.

The car, according to the FBI, was seized as part of Operation Giant Slalom, an investigation into alleged drug trafficker Ryan Wedding. Wedding, 44, hasn’t always been at the centre of a massive criminal investigation, somehow involving an incredibly rare Mercedes homologation special. In a previous life, he was a professional snowboarder, representing his home nation of Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Now, though, he’s on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, with the agency alleging that his trafficking operation puts him on a par with such notorious figures as Pablo Escobar and Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. According to US Attorney General Pam Bondi, it’s responsible for over $1 billion a year in illegal drug proceeds, and the reward for information leading to his arrest was recently raised to $15 million (around £11.35 million).

That’s ever so slightly more than the $13 million (around £9.8 million) that the FBI gives as the value of the CLK GTR Roadster, seized as part of this operation.

An even rarer version of an already incredibly rare car, the CLK GTR Roadster is essentially a targa-topped version of its coupe counterpart, which was built as a homologation special for the CLK GTR GT1 race car of the late ’90s. Powered by a massive 6.9-litre V12, only 20 coupes were built.

That’s nothing compared to the Roadster, though, of which a solitary example was built during the car’s original production run, plus five more a few years later on spare CLK GTR chassis. It’s likely one of those five cars that’s somehow become wrapped up in a major international drug trafficking operation. It’s not clear exactly why it has either, with the FBI not saying whether or not the car was actually owned by Wedding and what role it might have played. 

Either way, a CLK GTR Roadster was also owned by former Force India F1 team owner Vijay Mallya, now the subject of a major extradition effort by the UK to stand trial for alleged financial crimes, so if we had a pound for every time one of these extremely rare cars was tied to huge criminal investigations, we’d have £2. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird it’s happened twice.