The fall of Ryan James Wedding reads less like the missteps of a rogue athlete and more like a Hollywood crime saga—except the deaths are real, the drugs are moving, and the trail of destruction runs from Canada to Colombia and into the heart of the United States.
Once an Olympic snowboarder, Wedding has allegedly parlayed his ambition and international mobility into becoming the architect of a sprawling and brutal drug trafficking enterprise now under global siege.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice, working alongside international law enforcement, unsealed a nine-count federal indictment as part of “Operation Giant Slalom,” a coordinated crackdown that has resulted in the arrest of 10 individuals tied to Wedding’s criminal web.
Eleven defendants are now in custody in total. The charges stem from the January 31, 2025, murder in Medellín, Colombia, of a federal witness tied to a separate narcotics case against Wedding—a killing orchestrated, prosecutors say, with Wedding’s direct order and cartel muscle.
The cast of characters charged in this indictment spans professions, nations, and motives.
From Deepak Paradkar, a seasoned Canadian criminal barrister accused of facilitating and advising murder to avoid extradition, to Edwin Basora-Hernandez, a reggaeton artist who allegedly handed over critical information used to locate the victim, the network surrounding Wedding is as eclectic as it is dangerous. Even a gangland news site operator was involved—using his platform to redirect scrutiny and assist in tracking the murder target.
At the core of the indictment lies a chilling narrative: a witness silenced in a public restaurant in Medellín, with the bounty placed on their head by a man once known for conquering snow-covered slopes. The implications go beyond that singular act of violence.
The DOJ contends Wedding’s enterprise, in partnership with the Sinaloa Cartel, trafficked tons of cocaine annually into American cities and punished betrayal with bullets.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi made the DOJ’s position unambiguous: “We will not rest until his name is taken off the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted List.” The FBI has doubled down with a $15 million reward for information leading to Wedding’s arrest, branding him “one of the most prolific and violent drug trafficking organizers in this world.”
