Image source, FBI
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- author, Nadine Youssef
- Author title, BBC chief journalist in Canada
Months before an FBI witness was murdered in broad daylight, a Toronto-area lawyer reportedly advised his client: “If you kill this witness, the case will be dismissed.”
Speaking to the media on Wednesday, US Attorney Bill Essay claimed that tip, between attorney Deepak Paradkar and Ryan Wedge, a former Olympic skier who ended up on the FBI’s most wanted list for allegedly running a vast drug trafficking empire, helped set off a chain of events that led to the murder of a key federal witness at a restaurant in Medellin, Colombia.
In exchange for his services, Paradkar allegedly received luxury watches and additional fees.
These and other allegations are included in a 54-page FBI indictment declassified by the US Department of Justice on Wednesday. The report names 19 defendants, including Wedding and Paradkar, in connection with the January killing of the federal witness, identified in local media as Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia.
The alleged plan to silence a federal witness also includes a reggaeton musician, the head of a Toronto gang news website and the Colombian madam of a high-profile prostitution ring, according to the indictment.
Ten of them, including Paradkar, are now in custody and facing extradition proceedings to the United States. None have yet pleaded guilty, and these allegations have not been tested in court.
Wedding (44 years old) is still on the run, while the Canadian and American authorities have offered a reward of $15 million to anyone who arrests him. They have warned that he will stop at nothing to evade the police, and may even undergo plastic surgery to avoid arrest.
Image source, Toronto Star via Getty Images
The case offers an extraordinary look into the dark side of an alleged billion-dollar-a-year violent multinational criminal enterprise allegedly run by the former Olympian.
It also puts Paradkar, no stranger to the Canadian media, back in the spotlight. The criminal lawyer is known for his defense of Dylan Millard, a wealthy Toronto heir who turned out to be a multiple murderer.
At times, Paradkar himself became news. He was accused of helping Millard smuggle letters from prison to his then-girlfriend in an attempt to influence witnesses in a murder trial. Paradkar denied the allegations.
He was also the subject of a profile in the newspaper Toronto Sun In 2017, where he was described as “too flashy for his own good”. He wore $1,200 Louboutin shoes to court and showed off a Maserati on Instagram.
“I broke the mold a little bit,” Paradkar told the newspaper at the time. “I’m just doing my job as long as I adhere to professional standards.”
Image source, Environmental Protection Agency
How a large-scale cocaine smuggling operation collapsed
Authorities say Wedge turned to Paradkar for help when his criminal enterprise began to unravel, after US authorities intercepted one of his cocaine shipments in April 2024 in California. Two more packages were intercepted in August and October 2024, and all couriers were arrested.
In all three cases, Paradkar allegedly arranged legal representation for couriers in order to give Wedding access to inside information regarding his other clients, many of whom Wedding wanted to kill, according to authorities.
Later, in October 2024, the FBI announced a series of arrests related to Wedding, identifying him for the first time as the alleged leader of a major criminal enterprise with operations in Canada, the United States, and Latin America.
The authorities revealed that they had an insider who was cooperating as a key witness in the case. Canadian media have since identified him as Jonathan Acebedo Garcia, a Colombian-Canadian man who was said to have long been associated with Weeding.
According to authorities, the drug lord then turned to others to track down Acebedo Garcia, including Montreal organized crime leader Atna Ona and a Colombian woman, Carmen Yelenette Valois Flores.
Separately, Wedding allegedly recruited a Calgary man, Alistair Chapman, to pay an organized crime news blog $7,000 to publish information about Acebedo Garcia’s whereabouts. Chapman is among those detained and faces the risk of being extradited to the United States.
The person responsible for the blog, Gursewak Singh Pal, was also arrested. Authorities allege he posted a photo of Acebedo Garcia and his wife on the blog, suggesting he was a “snitch.”
“It is very likely that they will never find him again,” Ball reportedly wrote.
Oña and Florez are said to have recruited others to help locate the witness. Edwin Basura Hernandez, identified in the indictment as a reggaeton artist living in Canada, allegedly helped obtain her phone number in exchange for between $350 and $700.
Wedding allegedly hired another man to travel to Colombia and Saudi Arabia in search of him.
The witness was finally located in Colombia, where individuals on a motorcycle followed him to a restaurant inside a shopping mall. Another unidentified suspect entered, approached Acebedo Garcia and shot him while he was eating, according to prosecutors, killing him instantly.
The photo of the body was then allegedly sent to Wedding, to be disseminated as a “warning” to others who might encounter him, according to the indictment.
Meanwhile, Ona is said to have been rewarded with valuable jewelery for his role in the murder.
Image source, Getty Images
“Contemporary Pablo Escobar”
One of the most bizarre elements of this alleged criminal enterprise involves the man who is supposedly at the top: a wedding.
Described by FBI Director Kash Patel as a “modern-day version of Pablo Escobar,” the Canadian from Ontario was a professional snowboarder. He represented Canada in the men’s parallel giant slalom at the 2002 Winter Olympics, inspiring the name of the FBI investigation into his alleged organization: Operation Giant Slalom.
Wedding left winter sports after competing in the Olympics and briefly attended the University of British Columbia before dropping out.
According to profiles of him in Rolling Stone and toronto lifeHe became a bodybuilder and bouncer at Vancouver-area nightclubs, and later began growing and selling cannabis before the drug was legalized in Canada.
In 2009, he was convicted of cocaine trafficking as part of a larger operation and served a prison sentence in Texas before being extradited to Canada. He remained largely under the radar until October 2024, when the FBI first announced new charges against him, placing him as the leader of a large-scale criminal enterprise.
During this announcement, authorities accused him and his accomplices of unleashing “a torrent of violent crimes, including brutal murders.”
They claimed their drug trafficking network used trucks and safe houses to transport Colombian cocaine to the United States and Canada from Mexico.
Authorities believe he is currently hiding in Mexico under the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel.
“Instead of using the privileges that come with being an Olympic athlete to do good for people, he did the opposite,” US Attorney Martin Estrada claimed at the time.
“He chose to become a major drug trafficker and he chose to become a murderer,” he said.
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