U.S., Canadian authorities announce new arrests in efforts to prosecute fugitive Ryan Wedding

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U.S. and Canadian authorities announced new arrests, indictments and sanctions on Wednesday connected to what they allege is a violent international drug-trafficking network run by Canadian ex-Olympic snowboarder turned fugitive Ryan Wedding, who remains in hiding in Mexico despite a multimillion-dollar reward and a manhunt that has stretched on more than a year.

Police arrested seven people across Canada: including a Toronto-area lawyer accused of advising Mr. Wedding to kill a witness in Colombia; an accused drug dealer in Montreal alleged to have been involved in orchestrating the killing; and a jeweller in Toronto accused of helping Mr. Wedding launder money. Two others are wanted but were not in custody as of Wednesday.

Mr. Wedding, who is from Thunder Bay and competed for Canada as a snowboarder at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, has allegedly trafficked tonnes of cocaine and fentanyl across the continent. He was described by law-enforcement officials as a man who enforces drug debts and loyalty through murder and is sheltered by the Sinaloa drug cartel, which was recently designated a terrorist group by the Canadian and U.S. governments.

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FBI director Kash Patel, who appeared at a news conference Wednesday alongside the head of the RCMP and U.S. Attorney-General Pam Bondi, cast Mr. Wedding among the world’s most violent and notorious drug traffickers.

“Ryan Wedding is a modern-day iteration of Pablo Escobar. He is a modern-day iteration of El Chapo,” Mr. Patel told reporters.

“He will not evade justice.”

Ms. Bondi announced that the FBI increased its reward for information leading to Mr. Wedding’s arrest to $15-million, the highest offer by far for anyone on the agency’s list of ten most-wanted fugitives. The FBI initially offered $10-million earlier this year.

The U.S. Treasury Department also announced sanctions on Mr. Wedding and his alleged accomplices, and said it had seized millions of dollars from them.

In October, 2024, FBI and RCMP officials jointly announced in Los Angeles that they had teamed up to investigate Mr. Wedding as a man alleged to be one of North America’s most significant criminal overlords. The investigation is referred to by the police agencies as Operation Slalom.

Ten people were arrested on Tuesday from Canada, the U.S. and Colombia, bringing the number of those arrested and sought in connection with the Wedding network to more than 30, officials said. The FBI has accused Mr. Wedding of orchestrating multiple murders and an attempted murder – all in Southern Ontario.

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Among those already in custody is Andrew Clark, who was detained in Mexico last year and described in various court documents as Mr. Wedding’s second-in-command.

The allegations laid out in court documents have not been tested in court.

Many of the new details disclosed this week relate to the alleged killing of a prospective witness.

While U.S. officials did not name the witness, who is identified in American court documents as Victim A, arrest warrants filed in Quebec Superior Court indicate that Mr. Wedding was seeking the murder of a Montreal-born, Canadian-Colombian dual citizen named Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia. The former drug trafficker was shot dead in January of this year at a restaurant in the Colombian city of Medellín.

Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding’s alleged drug trafficking organization

An organizational chart prepared by U.S. law enforcement agencies showing what prosecutors allege is an international criminal network responsible for drug trafficking and violence in Canada, the United States, Mexico and elsewhere.

Alleged human

connections

Alleged business

connections

Protector

Owner / director

Attorney

Associated with

Relationship

Money laundering

Ryan Wedding

RELATIONSHIP

Miryam Andrea

Castillo Moreno

(Wife)

Carmen Yelinet

Valoyes Florez

(Madam)

Daniela Alejandra

Acuna Macias

(Girlfriend)

PROTECTOR

ATTORNEY

Edgar Aaron

Vazquez Alvarado

(’The General’)

Deepak

Balwant

Paradkar

VRG Energeticos

S.A. de C.V.

Grupo RVG

Combustibles

S.A. de C.V.

Grupo Ares

Imperial S.

de R.L. de C.V.

MONEY LAUNDERING

Rolan

Sokolovski

Gianluca

Tiepolo

John Anthony

Fallon

2351885

Ontario

Inc. d.b.a.

Diamond Tsar

Stile Italiano

S.R.L.

LMJ Trading

Ltd.

Windrose

Tactical

S.R.L.S.

Made in

Italy Motor

-cycles Ltd.

TMR Ltd.

Cristian

Diana

THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE:

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding’s alleged drug trafficking organization

An organizational chart prepared by U.S. law enforcement agencies showing what prosecutors allege is an international criminal network responsible for drug trafficking and violence in Canada, the United States, Mexico and elsewhere.

Alleged human

connections

Alleged business

connections

Relationship

Owner / director

Protector

Associated with

Attorney

Money laundering

Ryan Wedding

RELATIONSHIP

Miryam Andrea

Castillo Moreno

(Wife)

Daniela Alejandra

Acuna Macias

(Girlfriend)

Carmen Yelinet

Valoyes Florez

(Madam)

PROTECTOR

ATTORNEY

Edgar Aaron

Vazquez Alvarado

(’The General’)

Deepak

Balwant

Paradkar

VRG Energeticos

S.A. de C.V.

Grupo RVG

Combustibles

S.A. de C.V.

Grupo Ares

Imperial S.

de R.L. de C.V.

MONEY LAUNDERING

Rolan

Sokolovski

Gianluca

Tiepolo

John Anthony

Fallon

2351885

Ontario

Inc. d.b.a.

Diamond Tsar

Stile Italiano

S.R.L.

LMJ Trading

Ltd.

Windrose

Tactical

S.R.L.S.

Made in

Italy Motor

-cycles Ltd.

TMR Ltd.

Cristian

Diana

THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE:

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding’s alleged drug trafficking organization

An organizational chart prepared by U.S. law enforcement agencies showing what prosecutors allege is an international criminal network responsible for drug trafficking and violence in Canada, the United States, Mexico and elsewhere.

Alleged human

connections

Alleged business

connections

Protector

Owner / director

Attorney

Associated with

Relationship

Money

laundering

Ryan Wedding

PROTECTOR

ATTORNEY

RELATIONSHIP

MONEY LAUNDERING

Edgar Aaron Vazquez Alvarado

(’The General’)

Deepak Balwant Paradkar

Miryam Andrea Castillo Moreno

(Wife)

Rolan

Sokolovski

Gianluca

Tiepolo

John Anthony

Fallon

VRG Energeticos

S.A. de C.V.

2351885

Ontario

Inc. d.b.a.

Diamond Tsar

Stile Italiano

S.R.L.

LMJ Trading

Ltd.

Daniela Alejandra Acuna Macias

(Girlfriend)

Grupo RVG

Combustibles

S.A. de C.V.

Windrose

Tactical

S.R.L.S.

Made in

Italy Motor

-cycles Ltd.

Grupo Ares

Imperial S.

de R.L. de C.V.

TMR Ltd.

Carmen Yelinet Valoyes Florez

(Madam)

Cristian

Diana

THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

The U.S. indictment alleges that Mr. Wedding was directly involved in the murder conspiracy. For example, the documents say that last December, he impersonated a lawyer in a phone call and later spent US$18,500 for phone-hacking software so he could try to monitor communications on his target’s phone.

The documents say that Mr. Wedding and Mr. Clark sent Canadian operatives to several international cities to track down their target – paying them $10,000 to $40,000 for this work.

On Jan. 31, 2025, a gunman hired by the gang finally saw the man they were seeking. Inside a Medellín restaurant, the assailant fired five shots into his head, according to U.S. charge sheets. (The gunman and his accomplices have not themselves been identified)

That same day, Mr. Wedding is alleged to have sent Mr. Clark a photo of the victim’s corpse.

Prosecutors allege that Deepak Paradkar, a Toronto-area lawyer, had “advised” that killing Mr. Acebedo-Garcia could prevent Mr. Wedding and Mr. Clark from being extradited to the U.S. Mr. Clark was arrested in Mexico and is currently awaiting trial in California, where he is charged with drug trafficking, murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

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Court documents allege that Mr. Paradkar also introduced Mr. Wedding to drug traffickers, and that he allowed Mr. Wedding and others to eavesdrop on privileged communications between Mr. Paradkar and clients.

Mr. Wedding paid the lawyer through fees and luxury watches, the documents say.

Mr. Paradkar is a defence attorney who once used the Instagram handle “Cocaine_lawyer” and boasted about clients who beat drug charges. He has a well-known taste for luxury cars and has described trials as warfare.

U.S. central California attorney Bill Essayli told reporters on Wednesday that the arrest of Mr. Pradakar, the Toronto-area lawyer, was key.

“It was very important for us to get him,” said Mr. Essayli. “It was very important for the lawyer to be charged and the lawyer to be brought to justice.”

Atna Onha was arrested in Montreal and is charged with conspiracy to commit murder in connection with a criminal enterprise, conspiracy to retaliate against a witness, and conspiracy to distribute cocaine, according to documents filed in Quebec.

Mr. Onha, 40, who also went by Tupac and Kim Jong-Un, is described in court documents as a Montreal-area “hitman.” He is alleged to have texted Mr. Acebedo-Garcia to confirm that he was in fact working with the FBI, which court documents say Mr. Acebedo-Garcia confirmed.

Mr. Onha later employed a co-conspirator to find out details about the informant’s girlfriend, court documents allege.

For his role in the alleged hit on Mr. Acebedo-Garcia, he was also allegedly paid 30 kilograms of cocaine and $150,000, according to a request for his arrest made by U.S. authorities and filed in Quebec Superior Court Tuesday.

Rolan Sokolovski, a Toronto jeweller, allegedly paid Mr. Onha with a “bejeweled necklace” days after the witness was murdered in Colombia, court documents say.

Mr. Sokolovski, a former professional poker player, does business as the Diamond Tsar and is also accused of overseeing bookkeeping for Mr. Wedding’s criminal enterprise and of laundering funds through his numbered companies in Ontario.

Prosecutors also allege that Mr. Wedding and his associates paid a website called The Dirty News, which focused on posts about Canadian gangs, to publish a photograph of Mr. Acebedo-Garcia in an attempt to locate him, and also to not post information about Mr. Wedding.

The founder of the website, Gursewak Singh Bal, also a Canadian, has been charged. He is alleged to have posted a photo of Mr. Acebedo-Garcia on Instagram with text saying the man had “single-handedly” ratted out “one of the strongest underworld networks” the world had seen, according to the U.S. indictment.

Allistair Chapman, a Canadian citizen and former junior hockey player, is alleged to have paid money to Mr. Bal.

Also charged in Canada are:

• Ahmad Nabil Zitoun, another Canadian citizen and Edmonton resident. He “attempted to locate Victim A in Medellín and Mecca, Saudi Arabia so that Victim A could be killed,” the indictment says. 
• Edwin Basora-Hernandez is a Dominican citizen and resident of Canada. It’s alleged that he provided “Victim A’s contact information for the purpose of enabling the Wedding Criminal Enterprise to locate and kill Victim A.”
• Montreal-based Tommy Demorizi, a Canadian citizen, is also alleged to be part of the murder conspiracy and is believed to be a fugitive in the Dominican Republic. He is not in custody.
• Rasheed Pascua Hossain, whose aliases include “JP Morgan” and is alleged to have managed and laundered the proceeds from Mr. Wedding’s drug trafficking, including through the use of the cryptocurrency Tether. He is the other accused who was not in custody.

All of the suspects arrested in Canada are to be tried in the U.S., said RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme, adding that police in Canada don’t control the speed of the extradition process.

“It would happen tomorrow if it were up to me,” he said.

With reports from Kathryn Blaze Baum and Sara Mojtehedzadeh

Editor’s note: Based on quoted information provided by a U.S. official at a Washington press conference, a previous version of this article incorrectly stated that 12 people were arrested Tuesday in connection with this case. Ten people were arrested and 11 total are in custody.