Federal officials on Wednesday accused a former Olympic snowboarder-turned-drug trafficker of ordering the assassination of a federal witness who was set to testify about his criminal enterprise.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said Canadian Ryan James Wedding, who competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics, put a bounty on a witness who was gunned down in January at a restaurant in Colombia.
Authorities said Mr. Wedding, 44, wanted the witness dead to preserve his drug trafficking scheme that made him, according to authorities, the largest cocaine supplier in Canada.
“Wedding collaborates closely with the Sinaloa Cartel, a foreign terrorist organization, to flood not only American but also Canadian communities with cocaine coming from Colombia,” Ms. Bondi said Wednesday. “His organization is responsible for importing approximately six metric tons of cocaine a year into Los Angeles via semi trucks from Mexico.”
Prosecutors announced the charges after making a slew of arrests Tuesday in connection with the drug network.
Court documents said federal agents arrested 10 people from both Canada and Colombia as part of Operation Giant Slalom.
That included nabbing Deepak Balwant Paradkar, a Canadian citizen who authorities said worked as an underworld lawyer for Mr. Wedding and advised him to put the hit on the slain witness.
Mr. Wedding posted the murder-for-hire job on a now-deleted website called “The Dirty News,” Ms. Bondi said.
“Wedding placed a bounty on the victim’s head in the erroneous belief that the victim’s death would result in the dismissal of criminal charges against him and his international drug trafficking ring and would further ensure that he was not extradited to the United States,” Bill Essayli, the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, said Wednesday.
The feds charged Mr. Wedding with witness tampering and intimidation, money laundering and drug trafficking.
He already faces charges related to his trafficking scheme from a 2024 indictment. In that criminal complaint, prosecutors said he had two Canadians killed after they stole a drug shipment of his that was moving through Southern California.
The former athlete competed in the Olympics parallel giant slalom event before hanging up his snowboard and turning to a life of crime.
Mr. Wedding has been on the run for years. He was added to the FBI’s Most Wanted list in March.
The State Department upped its reward for information leading to Mr. Wedding’s arrest to $15 million in light of the new charges.
He was last known to be hiding out in Mexico.
