Canadian Olympian Ryan Wedding turned 'modern-day Escobar' running $1B drug empire, DOJ says

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00:00Good afternoon. Today, the Justice Department is proud to announce new developments in our

00:07ongoing investigation into Ryan James Wedding. Wedding is the former Olympian from Canada

00:14who is now the leader of a transnational criminal enterprise. He's currently on the FBI's and has

00:23been top 10 most wanted list. He controls one of the most prolific and violent drug trafficking

00:33organizations in this world. He is currently the largest distributor of cocaine in Canada.

00:45Wedding collaborates closely with the Sinaloa cartel, a foreign terrorist organization.

00:50To flood not only American, but also Canadian communities with cocaine coming from Colombia.

00:59His organization is responsible for importing approximately 60 metric tons of cocaine a year

01:09into Los Angeles via semi trucks from Mexico. To put that in perspective, 60 metric tons is approximately

01:2040 the weight of 40 standard cars. Imagine that. That's how much cocaine,

01:28the weight of 40 cars he is bringing into our country a year.

01:36In the course of the investigation, more than 35 individuals have been indicted.

01:40Over 2,000 kilos and numerous weapons have been seized. Approximately $3.2 million in cryptocurrency has been

01:50recovered and over 13 million in physical assets has been confiscated. Wedding is also accused of

02:00murdering a federal witness after he was indicted in 2024. He used a Canadian website called the Dirty News to

02:09post photographs of the witness to post photographs of the witness and his wife in order to locate him, which ultimately succeeded.

02:18The witness was gunned down in a restaurant in Medellin before he could testify against wedding.

02:25Today we're unsealing a new indictment, charging wedding with two additional counts of witness tampering and intimidation,

02:37murder, money laundering and drug trafficking. The website that was used to hunt down this witness

02:45and his wife that has since been removed, that has been deleted. Protecting federal witnesses from

02:51retaliation is core to the department's mission. It's about individual safety, but more it's about

03:01protecting the rule of law itself. The new indictment also includes several other individuals involved in

03:08the murder of the witness and other crimes in connection with this criminal enterprise. You're going

03:14to be hearing more about that from from the people behind me. We're working very closely with our

03:19partners at the State Department and the Department of Treasury. The State Department has raised the

03:24reward for Ryan Wedding from $10 million to $15 million. We're offering $2 million rewards for

03:34information leading to the arrest of those involved in the murder of the witness. The Treasury Department's

03:42foreign asset control is seizing assets belonging to approximately 19 of the targets associated with

03:50Wedding's criminal enterprise worth hundreds of millions of dollars. I want to thank the FBI,

03:57the US Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, as well as our Canadian law enforcement

04:04partners for their steadfast commitment to bring Ryan Wedding to justice.

04:10I also want to thank the Colombian National Police who have greatly helped us.

04:15Let me be clear. Drugs are killing our kids. Whether you are a street level drug dealer,

04:24a common street level drug dealer, or an international drug kingpin, we are coming for you. We will find you

04:33and you will be accountable and held to justice for your crimes. It's killing our kids. It's killing our

04:42friends. It's killing our relatives. And this guy is responsible for a tremendous amount of that horror.

04:52President Trump gave us one mission, make America safe again. And we will not sit idly by and let these drug

05:00dealers continue to do business, run rough shot on our neighborhoods and put the American people and

05:09our Canadian people in harm's way. To the American people, the Justice Department will use every tool

05:17available to catch these monsters. Thank you to all of our partners in this fight. From day one, Ryan Wedding has

05:27been on the top of Director Patel's radar to get him. We have talked about him constantly. And I'd now

05:35like to introduce Director Patel, who has done a tremendous job in his efforts to catch these monsters.