Friday, November 21, 2025 - Former Canadian Olympian Ryan Wedding has become one of the world’s most wanted fugitives, allegedly abandoning his snowboarding career for a criminal empire so vast that investigators have compared him to Pablo Escobar.
Wedding, 43, is accused of leading a billion-dollar
cocaine-smuggling organization protected by the Sinaloa Cartel and corrupt
officials in Mexico. He has evaded capture since October 2024 and was placed on
the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list in March. This week, the bureau increased the
reward for information leading to his arrest from $10 million to $15 million.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced newly unsealed
charges on Wednesday, including witness tampering, intimidation, murder, money
laundering and drug trafficking.
He is accused of locating a key FBI witness in Colombia who
was then murdered before he could testify. “We are coming for you. We will find
you. And you will be held accountable for your crimes,” Bondi said at a press
conference in Washington, calling his operation “one of the most prolific and
violent drug-trafficking organizations” in the world.
Authorities say Wedding, also known as “El Jefe”,
“Giant” and “Public Enemy”, oversaw the movement of hundreds of kilograms
of cocaine from Colombia into Canada each year. Bondi added: “His organization
is responsible for importing approximately 60 metric tonnes of cocaine a year
into Los Angeles via semi-trucks from Mexico,” estimating the load’s weight as
“40 cars.”
During the briefing, officials also confirmed the arrest of
Ontario lawyer Deepak Paradkar, accused of advising Wedding to kill the
informant, 42-year-old Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia, who was shot dead in a Medellín
restaurant in January.
Bill Essayli, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central
District of California, said Paradkar was one of a dozen suspects detained in a
sweeping “international takedown.” Canadian police have also arrested a
Montreal man, Atna Onha, who is charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the
killing of Acebedo-Garcia.
FBI Director Kash Patel said: “Make no mistake about it:
Ryan Wedding is a modern-day iteration of Pablo Escobar and El Chapo Guzmán.”
Akil Davis, assistant director of the bureau’s Los Angeles Field Office, added:
“He’s being protected by the Sinaloa Cartel along with others in the country of
Mexico.”
Wedding, who grew up in Thunder Bay, Ontario, represented
Canada in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, finishing 24th in the parallel
giant slalom. He continued competing until around 2010 and was described as an
“Olympic hopeful” by Canadian media.
His legal troubles began in the mid-2000s. In 2006 he was
named in a search warrant related to a marijuana-growing operation, though he
was never charged. In 2010 he was convicted of drug trafficking after
attempting to buy cocaine from a U.S. government agent and was sentenced to
four years in prison.
He is now charged with eight felonies, including three
counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, accusations that have
propelled him to the top tier of international fugitives.
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