Seven Canadians allegedly linked to a Canadian Olympian turned alleged drug lord played a key role in the execution of an informant in January this year, law enforcement officials say.
Canadians from Ontario, Quebec and Alberta everyone was named US Department of Justice, FBI And RCMP Wednesday was reportedly involved in Ryan Wedding's alleged drug empire.
Wedding, 44, a snowboarder who lived in Coquitlam, British Columbia, when he suited up for his country at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, was added to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. earlier this year.
He reportedly lives in Mexico and has ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the largest drug trafficking organizations based in Mexico that is listed as a foreign terrorist organization in the United States and Canada.
A reward of US$15 million is being offered for information leading to his arrest and/or prosecution.
The seven Canadians announced arrested and charged Wednesday bring the total number of people arrested and charged in connection with Wedding to 36. The seven are accused of helping Wedding track down and facilitate the murder of a key witness.
Two other Canadians wanted by international authorities are still at large, along with Wededd and another alleged accomplice charged in the new indictment, officials said.
Here are the charges against seven Canadians. They have not been tested in court.
Paradkar, 62, of Thornhill, Ont., was Wedding's lawyer, a newly unsealed indictment revealed.
In it, officials allege that Paradkar advised Wedding to kill a key witness so that he and Andrew Clark, his alleged deputy, would avoid extradition from Mexico on criminal charges against them.
The indictment alleges that Vedad placed a bounty on a witness and hired people to kill a witness who had information related to a drug trafficking case brought against Vedad in 2024.
According to the indictment, the witness was shot five times at a restaurant in Medellin, Colombia, on January 31 and died instantly.
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Paradkar is also accused of providing Vedid with court documents and evidentiary material from the 2024 criminal case that he would not otherwise have had access to.
She, 40, from Laval, Quebec, is accused of being a hitman and assisting in the murder of the victim.
The indictment alleges that She participated in his search and search. He found and provided Wedding with the identification information of one of the victim's associates.
On or after January 31, She contacted Clark and requested approximately C$300,000 for his role in the murder.
He was reportedly given $150,000 and 30 kilograms of cocaine as payment.
Bal, 31, of Mississauga, Ontario, was a cameraman for a Canadian urban news outlet called Dirty News.
On Oct. 4, 2024, a colleague reportedly paid him $10,000 not to publish information about Wedding and Clark and instead was given a photograph of a witness and paid to publish it so he could be found and killed, the indictment says.
On November 5, 2024, Bel reportedly posted an Instagram story with an image of the victim and wrote: “This guy (rat emoji) single-handedly broke out of one of the strongest underworld networks this (earth emoji) has seen. There's a good chance he'll never be found again.”
On January 31, Bal posted another Instagram featuring a photo of a restaurant in Medellin and his lower body lying on the ground, with a caption that read: “[Victim A] down…” and “BOOM! Shot to the head.”
Chapman, 33, of Calgary, Alta., allegedly paid Bal for his position, the indictment says.
It is reported that he, along with Ona and other accomplices, participated in the search for the witness.
Zitoun, 35, of Edmonton, Alta., tried to locate the witness in Medellin and Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the indictment alleges.
In January, Clark hired him to find a witness for $10,000 plus expenses. On orders from Clark and Wedding, he traveled to Colombia and Saudi Arabia to find him.
Zitoun was offered a contract to kill him, but he refused, the indictment alleges.
After a trip to Mecca, he was paid $40,000 for trying to find a witness.
Basora-Hernandez, a 31-year-old Montreal resident and reggaeton musician, is accused of providing contact information for a witness to help Wedding and his alleged accomplices find him.
He was contacted on or about November 20, 2024, and provided the victim's cell phone number and email address in exchange for $500 and $1,000.
No later than December 3, Basora-Hernandez informed Wedding that, under the guise of a lawyer, and Paradkar, Canadian law enforcement authorities had approached him in order to learn the whereabouts of the victim.
37-year-old Toronto resident Sokolovsky was named in the indictment as a professional poker player, jeweler and pimp.
He allegedly managed and laundered the network's drug proceeds and purchased luxury items for Wedding and Clark.
In addition to laundering proceeds that were transferred to his cryptocurrency account, Sokolovsky is accused of making a bejeweled necklace for Ona as a reward for his role in the victim's murder.
Wedding and another Canadian citizen arrested by Mexican authorities last fall are accused of orchestrating the Nov. 20, 2023, murders of two family members in Caledon, Ont., in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment. Ontario Provincial Police said the family was “completely innocent” and was mistakenly targeted.
Wedding faces separate “undisclosed” drug trafficking charges in Canada that date back to 2015, the RCMP said last October.
He was previously convicted in the United States of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and sentenced to prison in 2010, federal records show. US authorities believe that after Vedad's release, he resumed drug trafficking and was under the protection of the Sinaloa cartel.
— With files from Sean Boynton
