A federal grand jury indictment charging an Olympic athlete turned cocaine trafficker was unsealed and ten defendants were arrested, with 11 total in custody, as part of Operation Giant Slalom.
The recently unsealed indictment charged a former Olympic snowboarder on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List, a Canadian criminal barrister, a reggaeton musician, a would be gangland news website operator, and others in connection with the January 31 murder in Colombia of a federal witness in a separate criminal case, pursuant to the nine-count federal grand jury indictment.
44-year-old Ryan James Wedding, a Canadian national residing in Mexico, the case’s lead defendant, is charged with overseeing the operations of a criminal enterprise, including by engaging in witness intimidation tactics such as murder. He is also charged with enriching himself with the enterprise’s laundered drug proceeds. In March 2025, Wedding was placed on the FBI’s List of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. There is an increased $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest and/or prosecution.
According to the DOJ, the following defendants were arrested as part of the second phase of a law enforcement action entitled Operation Giant Slalom:
- 62-year-old Deepak Balwant Paradkar, of Thornhill, Ontario, Canada
- 40-year-old Atna Ohna, of Laval, Québec, Canada
- 31-year-old Gursewak Singh Bal, of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
- 33-year-old Allistair Chapman, of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
- 35-year-old Ahmad Nabil Zitoun, of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- 47-year-old Carmen Yelinet Valoyes Florez, of Bogotá, Colombia
- 36-year-old Yulieth Katherine Tejada, of Orlando, Florida, who is legal permanent resident from Colombia
- 31-year-old Edwin Basora-Hernandez, of Montréal
- 45-year-old Wilson Riascos, of Cali, Colombia
- 37-year-old Rolan Sokolovski, of Toronto
“Whether you’re a kingpin or a dealer on the street, anyone who sells drugs to our kids will be arrested and prosecuted,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi. “Ryan Wedding controls one of the most prolific and violent drug trafficking organizations in this world and works closely with the Sinaloa Cartel. We will not rest until his name is taken off the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted List, and his narco-trafficking organization lies dismantled.”
“The murder of a witness in Colombia earlier this year was a cruel, cold-blooded act that could not and did not go unanswered,” said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli of the Central District of California. “This week’s arrests underscore our resolve to root out and punish the wrongdoers involved in this criminal organization and serve as a warning for drug lord Ryan Wedding: If convicted, you will never see the outside of a prison ever again.”
To eliminate threats and advance his enterprise’s interests, Wedding issued orders to murder various individuals, including an order to kill the victim, a witness in a 2024 federal narcotics case against Wedding, which resulted in the victim’s death. Wedding 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 2025.
In the 2024 indictment, Wedding is charged with running a continuing criminal enterprise, assorted drug trafficking charges, and directing the November 20, 2023, murders of two members of a family in Caledon, Ontario, Canada, 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 charged in the indictment unsealed are 18 additional defendants, including Paradkar, a criminal barrister who advised Wedding to murder the victim so that Wedding would avoid extradition to the United States from Mexico on the 2024 federal criminal charges against him. Paradkar also provided Wedding with court documents and discovery to which he would not otherwise have access, and – through attorneys whose representation he secured – access to enterprise members and associates who either were arrested, indicted, or under investigation.
Bal was the co-founder and co-operator of “The Dirty News,” a website that law enforcement seized pursuant to a federal warrant. In exchange for payment, Bal agreed to not post about Wedding and instead posted a photograph of the victim so that the victim could be located and killed.
Basora-Hernandez, a reggaeton musician and citizen of the Dominican Republic, provided co-conspirators with the victim’s contact information for the purpose of helping Wedding and his criminal enterprise locate and murder the victim.
Concurrent with the recent arrests, law enforcement has taken immigration action against associates of Wedding’s enterprise, including 38-year-old Latin pop artist Samantha Melissa Granda-Gastelu, a Canadian national residing in Aventura, Florida, whose husband 37-year-old Nahim Jorge Bonilla, has been indicted on separate murder conspiracy charges. Bonilla is in currently in federal custody, charged with drug trafficking crimes. An immigration action also is being initiated against 27-year-old Madeline Paradkar, a Canadian national residing in Chicago who is an attorney and Paradkar’s daughter.
Law enforcement continues to search for Wedding, and the following three defendants:
- 32-year-old Rasheed Pascua Hossain, of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada;
- 37-year-old Bianca Canastillo-Madrid, of Mexico City; and
- 35-year-old Tommy Demorizi, of Montréal, who is believed to be a fugitive in the Dominican Republic
If convicted, Wedding – and the defendants charged in connection with the victim’s murder, would face a maximum sentence of life in federal prison.
The FBI is investigating this matter with the Los Angeles Police Department, the United States Departments of State and Treasury – Office of Foreign Assets Control, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police – Federal Policing. In addition, significant assistance was provided by U.S. law enforcement partners, including Homeland Security Investigation Miami and Chicago and U.S. Customs and Border Protection – Buffalo; Canadian law enforcement partners, including Ontario Provincial Police, and Colombian law enforcement partners, including Colombian National Police – Directorate of Criminal Investigation and Interpol, Special Interagency Investigation Group (Policía Nacional de Colombia – Dirección de Investigación Criminal e Interpol, Grupo Especial de Investigación Interagenciales).
The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section’s Judicial Attaché Office in Bogotá, Colombia also provided significant assistance.
Assistant United States Attorneys Lyndsi Allsop and Kenneth R. Carbajal of the Major Crimes Section and Assistant United States Attorneys Jonathan Galatzan, Tara Vavere, and Alexander Su of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section are prosecuting this case.
This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. This case is also part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, TCOs, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad.
The Department of Justice noted that an indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.
