On Wednesday, the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the arrest of Canadian defense attorney Deepak Paradkar as part of a sweeping crackdown on the alleged drug trafficking organization led by former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding. Wedding, who competed for Team Canada and participated in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, is currently a fugitive facing multiple charges, including murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise, drug offenses, witness tampering, and retaliation against a witness. The FBI and Department of Justice have confirmed that Paradkar, described as Wedding’s lawyer, is alleged to have advised the ex-Olympian to kill a witness in an attempt to dismiss the case, thus leading to his arrest and extradition to the United States.
According to U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, who addressed the press conference, the lawyer advised Wedding that killing the witness would result in the case being dismissed. ‘His lawyer advised him to kill this witness. His lawyer told him, ‘If you kill this witness, the case would be dismissed.’ That lawyer is now in custody, and he will be extradited and brought to justice here in the United States,’ Essayli emphasized. The indictment against Paradkar details the alleged conspiracy, stating that the defendant was involved in advising Wedding and his accomplice Andrew Clark that the murder of Victim A would benefit them by causing the federal indictment against them in Wedding I and related extradition proceedings to be dismissed.
The indictment also claims that Paradkar allowed Clark to covertly listen in on a conversation he was having with another accused suspect. Furthermore, during a discussion about the killing of another co-accused, Paradkar advised them to discuss the matter on a different chat without him present and to delete any and all discussion of the murder plot. The U.S. Department of the Treasury issued separate sanctions against Paradkar, accusing him of violating the trust of his clients and the ethics of his profession by allowing Wedding and his associates to eavesdrop on privileged communication. The Treasury’s statement highlights that Paradkar introduced Wedding to drug traffickers involved in moving his cocaine and provided illegal services, including bribery and murder, in exchange for luxury watches and additional fees.
The United States Attorney General, Pam Bondi, revealed that Wedding ultimately ordered a hit on a federal witness by publishing his pictures online on a now-deleted website called ‘The Dirty News’ after he was indicted in 2024. The witness was then shot dead in a restaurant in Medellin, Colombia, on January 31. Federal officials have raised the reward for Wedding’s capture to $15 million, citing his status as an ‘extremely violent criminal believed to be responsible for the murder of numerous people abroad.’
Wedding is on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list and is described as a major target for his alleged involvement in trafficking tons of cocaine through Colombia and Mexico into the U.S. and Canada. According to the FBI, he has ordered dozens of murders in North America and Latin America and uses cryptocurrency to hide his wealth. The FBI has also alleged that Wedding and Clark coordinated a double homicide in Ontario in November 2023, involving an innocent couple in a mistaken-identity killing, and are accused of orchestrating another murder in May over a drug debt.
The charges against Wedding and his alleged associates include a mandatory minimum penalty of life in a federal prison. While the details of the case continue to unfold, the arrest of Paradkar and the ongoing investigation into Wedding’s alleged criminal activities have drawn significant attention to the intersection of legal ethics and organized crime, underscoring the dangers posed by individuals who exploit their positions for illegal activities with severe consequences for others.