In a startling revelation that exposes the dark nexus of international crime, an FBI indictment unsealed in June 2024 has uncovered a sprawling drug trafficking and murder conspiracy allegedly led by Ryan Wedding, a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned fugitive. The case also implicates a Toronto-area lawyer, Deepak Paradkar, who is accused of advising Wedding on how to silence a key federal witness, setting off a deadly chain of events culminating in a high-profile assassination in Colombia.
The indictment, spanning 54 pages and naming 19 defendants, details a complex criminal enterprise said to generate an estimated $1 billion annually through cocaine trafficking operations spanning Canada, the United States, and Latin America. Central to the investigation is Ryan Wedding, once a celebrated winter athlete who represented Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics in the men’s parallel giant slalom event. Since retiring from sports, Wedding’s trajectory took a dark turn into the underworld of drug trafficking and organized crime.
Authorities describe Wedding as a “modern-day iteration of Pablo Escobar,” highlighting the scale and violence of his alleged operation. After his Olympic career, Wedding briefly enrolled in university but soon dropped out, later becoming a bodybuilder and nightclub bouncer in the Vancouver area. In the years that followed, he became involved in illegal drug distribution, initially through cannabis cultivation and sales before transitioning to trafficking large quantities of cocaine.
Wedding’s criminal record dates back to 2009, when he was convicted of cocaine trafficking and served time in a Texas prison before being deported to Canada. For years he remained under the radar until April 2024, when U.S. authorities intercepted one of his cocaine shipments in California, triggering an intensifying crackdown on his network. Two additional shipments were seized in August and October 2024, resulting in arrests of several couriers connected to the enterprise.
It was during this period of mounting pressure that Deepak Paradkar, a Toronto-based criminal lawyer, allegedly entered the picture as Wedding’s legal counsel. Paradkar, who has previously garnered media attention for defending high-profile clients such as Dellen Millard—a wealthy Toronto heir convicted of multiple murders—stands accused of providing Wedding with sinister advice. According to U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, Paradkar reportedly told Wedding, “if you kill this witness, the case will be dismissed,” referring to a federal informant cooperating with authorities.
Paradkar’s role went beyond legal representation. The indictment alleges he was compensated with luxury watches and additional legal fees in exchange for services that included arranging legal counsel for couriers arrested in connection with the cocaine shipments. This arrangement allegedly gave Wedding access to privileged legal information about his clients, some of whom he sought to have eliminated to protect his criminal enterprise.
The federal witness at the center of the case is identified by local media as Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia, a Canadian-Colombian man and longtime associate of Wedding who began cooperating with U.S. authorities. Once Wedding’s network learned of Acebedo-Garcia’s cooperation, they allegedly orchestrated an elaborate plot to locate and kill him, involving a diverse cast of characters including a reggaeton musician, a Montreal organized crime leader, and a Colombian madame overseeing a high-end prostitution ring.
Among those implicated are Atna Ohna, a Montreal-based organized crime figure, and Carmen Yelinet Valoyes Florez, the Colombian madame. Wedding also allegedly enlisted Allistair Chapman, a Calgary resident, to pay C$10,000 to a crime gossip blog operator, Gursewak Singh Bal, who ran a Toronto-based gang news website. Bal is accused of publishing Acebedo-Garcia’s photo along with his wife’s, labeling him a “snitch” and effectively endangering his life.
Additional accomplices were recruited to aid in tracking Acebedo-Garcia. Edwin Basora-Hernandez, a Canadian-based reggaeton artist, allegedly received payments ranging from C$500 to C$1,000 to secure the witness’s phone number. Another unidentified individual was reportedly hired to travel to Colombia and Saudi Arabia in search of Acebedo-Garcia.
The culmination of this deadly manhunt occurred in Medellín, Colombia, where Acebedo-Garcia was located at a restaurant within a shopping center. According to the indictment, assailants on a motorcycle tracked him down, after which another suspect entered the venue and fatally shot Acebedo-Garcia while he dined. The killing was swift and brutal. A