UPDATE - US targets ‘modern Escobar’ with new indictment, increases reward to $15M

ADDS DETAILS, CHANGES NUMBER OF ARRESTED IN LINE WITH STATEMENT FROM JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

By Yasin Gungor

ISTANBUL (AA) - US authorities announced international enforcement action Wednesday against a transnational criminal organization led by former Canadian Olympian Ryan James Wedding and increased a reward to $15 million for information that would help to his arrest.

An international operation that involved the Justice Department, FBI, State Department and Treasury Department resulted in 10 arrests, and 11 total are in custody, including seven Canadian associates apprehended by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Apprehensions included "a reggaeton musician, a would-be gangland news website operator, and others in connection" with Wedding and searches for three others in Canada and Mexico are underway, said the Justice Department.

Law enforcement seized more than 2,000 kilograms (4,409 pounds) of drugs, weapons, and over $13 million in physical assets.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed that a new indictment has been unsealed against Wedding and 14 other defendants, adding charges of witness tampering, intimidation and murder to existing drug and money laundering counts.

Wedding is accused of controlling one of the world's most violent drug trafficking organizations, which runs a $1 billion annual criminal enterprise and is allegedly the largest distributor of cocaine in Canada and imported 60 tons into the US city of Los Angeles yearly.

He allegedly orchestrated the January murder of a federal witness who was shot five times in the head in Medellin, Colombia, before he could testify.

Canadian lawyer Deepak Paradkar was arrested and charged for allegedly advising Wedding on committing the murder to dismiss the case. Paradkar is the father of Madeline Paradkar.

The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Wedding alongside nine individuals and nine entities for their roles in money laundering, which included using cryptocurrency and front businesses.

The State Department increased the reward for information leading to Wedding's arrest to $15 million from $10 million, with rewards of up to $2 million each for information leading to the unknown assassins responsible for the murder of the witness.

Wedding, now on the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted list and described by US officials as a modern iteration of Pablo Escobar, a Colombian drug lord, is currently believed to be in Mexico under the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel, which the US designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

In parallel with Tuesday's arrests, law enforcement agencies initiated immigration proceedings against Wedding's associates. Among them are Samantha Melissa Granda-Gastelu, a Canadian citizen and Latin pop artist residing in the state of Florida, and Madeline Paradkar, also a Canadian national, lawyer and daughter of Paradkar, according to the Justice Department.