US raises reward for ex-Olympian drug lord Ryan Wedding
The United States has increased its reward for information leading to the capture of Ryan Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder turned alleged international drug kingpin, as Canadian authorities arrested seven people connected to his criminal network.
Speaking in Washington on Wednesday, FBI Director Kash Patel described the 44-year-old fugitive as a “modern-day iteration of Pablo Escobar”, underscoring the scale and violence of his drug-trafficking operations. Wedding, who competed for Canada at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, is believed to be hiding in Mexico and remains on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, News.Az reports, citing Al Jazeera.
The US State Department has now raised the reward for information leading to his arrest from $10 million to $15 million.
According to US officials, Wedding oversees one of the largest cocaine-smuggling networks in North America, moving approximately 60 metric tonnes of cocaine annually from Colombia and Mexico into Los Angeles, in coordination with Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wedding is responsible for trafficking $1 billion worth of cocaine each year, calling him a major threat to public safety.
“It’s killing our kids, our friends, our relatives,” Bondi said. “We will find you, and you will be held to justice.”
Wedding faces charges including conspiracy to distribute cocaine, conspiracy to export cocaine, money laundering, and conspiracy to commit murder.
Canadian authorities on Tuesday arrested seven individuals linked to Wedding as part of “Operation Giant Slalom”, a coordinated investigation between US and Canadian agencies.
Among those arrested is Deepak Paradkar, a prominent 62-year-old defence lawyer. US prosecutors allege that Paradkar advised Wedding that if he killed a witness in a pending case, “the charges would be dismissed.” That witness was murdered in January 2025 in Medellín, Colombia — shot five times in the head.
Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli said Wedding placed a bounty on the victim, believing the killing would block his extradition to the United States.
“He was wrong,” Essayli said.
The US is now seeking the extradition of all seven suspects arrested in Canada, while three additional individuals tied to the Medellín murder are already in US custody.
Another key individual arrested was Gursewak Singh Bal, founder of a fake news outlet called The Dirty News. US investigators say he was paid to publish a photograph of the witness and his wife shortly before the murder to help assassins locate the couple.
The US has offered an additional $2 million reward for information leading to the prosecution of those involved in the Medellín killing.
As part of the crackdown, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced new financial sanctions against Wedding and his network, freezing assets and restricting their access to the global financial system.
Canadian police officials say Wedding remains “one of the top threats to Canadian public safety”.
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