The United States has raised the reward for information leading to the arrest of former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding, an accused drug kingpin now considered one of North America’s most dangerous traffickers, as Canadian authorities announced the arrests of seven individuals tied to his operation.
FBI Director Kash Patel said at a news conference in Washington on Wednesday that the State Department increased the bounty for Wedding to $15 million, up from $10 million. Patel described the 44-year-old Canadian as a “modern-day iteration of Pablo Escobar,” invoking the Colombian cartel leader killed in 1993. Wedding, listed among the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, is believed to be hiding in Mexico.
Patel said investigators have linked Wedding to an expansive “narco-trafficking and narco-terrorism program” of a scale federal authorities have not encountered in years. Wedding was indicted in 2024 on charges including conspiracy to distribute and possess cocaine, conspiracy to export cocaine and conspiracy to commit murder. FBI agent Akil Davis said Wedding, who competed in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and placed 24th in the parallel giant slalom, is regarded as “extremely violent” and “extremely wealthy.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wedding has become Canada’s largest distributor of cocaine, moving an estimated $1 billion worth of narcotics annually. Investigators allege he works closely with Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and transports roughly 60 metric tonnes of cocaine each year through truck routes leading into Los Angeles from the southern border.
Bondi vowed that authorities would pursue Wedding until he is brought into custody, saying his operation has fueled catastrophic drug-related harm across North America. She underscored that US officials are determined to hold him accountable for the violence linked to his network.
On Tuesday, Canadian officials announced the arrests of seven individuals accused of participating in Wedding’s drug-smuggling enterprise. Among them is Toronto lawyer Deepak Paradkar, whom investigators say advised Wedding that killing a witness in a pending criminal case could result in dismissal of charges. The witness was later shot five times in the head and killed at a restaurant in Medellin, Colombia, in January 2025.
Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli said Wedding placed a bounty on the witness in the mistaken belief that eliminating him would collapse the case and protect his trafficking ring from extradition and prosecution. Essayli said the move instead intensified the international investigation.
Bondi said the United States is offering a separate $2 million reward for information leading to the capture of those involved in the Medellin killing.
Another man arrested in Canada, identified as Gursewak Singh Bal, is accused of operating a fabricated news website called The Dirty News. Federal authorities allege Bal was paid to publish photographs of the witness and his wife ahead of the slaying to help the killers track them down.
US officials said they are seeking the extradition of all seven suspects arrested in Canada. Three additional individuals connected to the Medellin murder were detained earlier in the United States.
Michael Duheme, commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said Wedding remains one of the most significant threats to public safety in Canada. As part of Operation Giant Slalom, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control also announced financial sanctions targeting Wedding and his network, aiming to disrupt the organization’s international reach.
