BURST
The Federal Bureau of Investigation says a Vancouver man has been arrested in connection with former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding, the alleged mastermind of a global cocaine empire.
The FBI says Rasheed Pascua Hossain was captured this week, shortly after U.S. authorities announced that 10 more people had been arrested, seven of them Canadian. Wedding and two other suspects linked to the case remain at large.
Hossain is charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine, conspiracy to export cocaine and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, according to the FBI.
The other 10 suspects were arrested on Tuesday following a nine-count federal grand jury indictment, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Wedding, 44, a Canadian national believed to be residing in Mexico is charged with overseeing the operations of a criminal enterprise, including engaging in witness intimidation tactics such as murder, U.S. authorities allege.
In March 2025, Wedding was placed on the FBI’s List of 10 most wanted fugitives, with a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest and/or prosecution.
Those arrested earlier this week are:
• Deepak Balwant Paradkar, 62, of Thornhill, Ontario
• Atna Ohna, 40, of Laval, Québec
• Gursewak Singh Bal, 31, of Mississauga, Ontario
• Allistair Chapman, 33, of Calgary, Alberta
• Ahmad Nabil Zitoun, 35, of Edmonton, Alberta
• Carmen Yelinet Valoyes Florez, 47, of Bogotá, Colombia
• Yulieth Katherine Tejada, 36, of Orlando, Florida
• Edwin Basora-Hernandez, 31, of Montréal
• Wilson Riascos, 45, of Cali, Colombia
• Rolan Sokolovski, 37, of Toronto.
Paradkar is a prominent Canadian defence lawyer who is accused of helping murder a witness in Colombia who was set to testify against Wedding.
Paradkar is accused of sending copies of evidence obtained by the Ontario Provincial Police during its investigation of a double homicide that Wedding is accused of ordering.
In that attack in 2023, two members of a family, Jagtar Sidhu, 57, and his wife, Harbhajan Sidhu, 57, were shot dead and their daughter survived being shot 13 times in their home in Caledon, northwest of Toronto. Authorities allege the gunmen shot innocent people in a case of mistaken identity.
“No one, not even a former Olympian, is above the law,” said Chris Landberg, with the Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.
“We are increasing our reward offer to up to $15 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Ryan Wedding. We are also offering rewards of up to $2 million each for the assassins behind the murder of his associate in Colombia.”
The bounty was allegedly $5 million before the witness was killed.
U.S. officials allege Wedding issued orders to murder various individuals, including an order to kill a witness in a 2024 federal narcotics case against Wedding.
Wedding allegedly placed a bounty on the victim and enlisted the services of others to locate and kill the victim, who was shot to death in a restaurant in Medellín, Colombia, in January, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
In the 2024 indictment, Wedding is charged with running a continuing criminal enterprise, assorted drug trafficking charges, and directing the Nov. 20, 2023, murders of two members of a family in Ontario in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment that passed through Southern California. Another member of that family survived the shooting but was left with serious physical injuries.
Also named on the U.S. Treasury’s sanctions list is Wedding’s wife, identified as Miryam Andrea Castillo Moreno.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
With files from the National Post