Feds claim Olympic snowboarder ordered witness's murder in cocaine case

LOS ANGELES (CN) — Canadian snowboarder Ryan Wedding, currently on the FBI’s list of top 10 fugitives after being accused of running a billion-dollar cocaine smuggling ring, was hit with new charges Wednesday: that he had a witness murdered in Colombia.

“The murder of a witness in Colombia earlier this year was a cruel, cold-blooded act that could not and did not go unanswered,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli in a written statement.

His boss, Attorney General Pamela Bondi, added in a statement: “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 organization lies dismantled.”

Ryan Wedding, 44, competed at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. Seven years later, he was convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Released in 2011, federal prosecutors say he founded a criminal enterprise that is now the largest supplier of cocaine in Canada, moving hundreds of kilos out of Colombia and into North America.

On Tuesday, 10 of Wedding’s underlings were arrested, a crew that includes a reggaeton artist, a professional poker player, the operator of a gangland news site (recently seized by the FBI) and a 62-year-old criminal barrister known as “Cocaine Lawyer.” Feds believe that Wedding is currently living in Mexico, and are offering a $15 million reward for information leading to his capture.

Last year, Wedding was charged with three counts of murder, one count of attempted murder and drug trafficking. In the new indictment, prosecutors accuse Wedding of ordering at least three murders.

According to prosecutors, it was Deepak Paradkar, also known as “Cocaine Lawyer,” who advised Wedding to murder a would-be witness set to testify against them, “so that they would avoid extradition from Mexico on the criminal charges” filed in 2014. Wedding then placed $5 million bounty on the witness, identified in the indictment as “Victim A,” who was hiding somewhere in Colombia.

To help flush out the witness, Wedding and his crew enlisted the help of a number of people, including a Dominican reggaeton artist, Edwin Basora-Hernandez, and Gursewak Bal, who operated The Dirty News, a self-described “independent journalistic blog” covering Canadian gangs and organized crime.

In November 2024, Bal posted a photo of the would-be witness on the Dirty News’ Instagram account, along with the caption: “This guy single handedly [rat emoji] out one of the strongest underworld networks that this[earth emoji] has seen Good chance he’ll never be found again.” According to prosecutors, he was later paid $10,000 Canadian dollars (about $7,000 U.S.) to refrain from posting about Wedding, but to post again about the witness “so that enterprise members and associates could locate and kill” him.

It’s unclear what role Dirty News, or an $18,500 “on-device interception tool,” played in locating the victim. But on Jan. 31, the witness was eating dinner at a restaurant when he was shot in the head five times. The murder itself was carried out with the help of at least four people, all on motorcycles, and was trumpeted the next day by Bal on Dirty News. Wedding paid out at least half a million dollars to the conspirators, as well as $300,000 Canadian to Atna Ohna, also known as “Tupac” and “Kim Jong-Un,” a hitman or “sicario” supervising the brazen murder. Ohna also received 30 kilos of cocaine and a bejeweled necklace.

Federal prosecutors also accuse Wedding of ordering the murder of a driver who they believe stole 300 kilograms of cocaine from him. In 2023, Wedding’s associates burst into a rental property in Caledon, Ontario, fatally shooting the driver, one of his family members and another person mistaken for a relative of the driver.

If convicted, Wedding faces up to life in prison without parole.

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