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Canadian drug violation defense attorney Deepak Paradkar was arrested as part of the FBI’s sweeping crackdown on former Olympian Ryan Wedding, the FBI and DOJ announced Wednesday.
Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder for Team Canada, is still at large on multiple charges, including murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and drug crime, tampering with a witness, victim, or informant, and retaliation against a witness, victim, or informant.
Paradkar was described as Wedding’s lawyer at the press conference by U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli. Essayli also claimed that Paradkar advised Wedding to have a witness killed in attempt to have a case 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’ll be extradited and brought to justice here in the United States,” Essayli said.
Meanwhile, the indictment against Paradkar reads, “Defendant Paradkar, and others known and unknown to the Grand Jury, would advise defendant Wedding and [Wedding’s accomplice Andrew] Clark that Victim A’s murder would benefit them by causing the federal indictment against them in Wedding I and related extradition proceedings to be dismissed.”
The indictment went on to allege that Paradkar allegedly allowed Clark to “covertly” listen in on a conversation he was having with one another accused suspect. The indictment also alleged that while Clark and another defendant discussed killing 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.”
A U.S. Department of the Treasury news release issued separate sanctions against Paradkar on Wednesday, as officials accused the lawyer of violating the “trust of his clients and the ethics of his profession” by allowing Wedding and his associates to eavesdrop on privileged communication.
WHO IS RYAN WEDDING? OLYMPIAN TURNED ALLEGED MURDEROUS DRUG KINGPIN AND TOP FBI TARGET
“Paradkar is a Canadian attorney who has provided a range of illegal services to Wedding and his drug trafficking organization beyond the scope of a normal attorney-client relationship,” the news release read.
“Paradkar introduced Wedding to the drug traffickers that have been moving Wedding’s cocaine and has also helped Wedding with bribery and murder.
“Paradkar violated the trust of his clients and the ethics of his profession by allowing Wedding and his associates to eavesdrop on privileged communications between Paradkar and his other clients, several of whom Wedding wished to murder. Wedding paid Paradkar with luxury watches and additional fees for these illegal services.”
Wedding ultimately ordered a hit on a federal witness by publishing pics of him online, US Attorney General Pam Bondi revealed Wednesday. The ex-Olympian allegedly shared the photographs of the witness who was due to testify against him on a now-deleted website called “The Dirty News,” after he was indicted in 2024, Bondi said.
The witness was then shot dead in a restaurant in Medellin, Colombia, on Jan. 31.
Federal officials raised the reward for Wedding’s capture to $15 million on Wednesday.
Wedding, 44, and 14 other alleged associates were accused of orchestrating the January 2025 murder of a witness who was shot and killed at a restaurant in Colombia. Officials said Wedding placed a bounty on the victim’s head thinking their death would lead to the dismissal of charges against him and the drug-trafficking ring he is allegedly the head of.
Wedding is on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List and is described as “extremely violent criminal believed to be responsible for the murder of numerous people abroad,” according to federal officials.
Wedding is allegedly responsible for trafficking tons of cocaine through Colombia and Mexico to be distributed in the U.S. and Canada and uses cryptocurrency to hide his wealth. The FBI has said that Wedding has ordered dozens of murders in North America and Latin America.
Wedding participated in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City after missing out on the 1998 Games. It was the only Olympics he competed in.
In his only event, the men’s parallel giant slalom, Wedding finished in 24th place. Switzerland’s Philipp Schoch won gold, Sweden’s Richard Rikardsson won silver and Chris Klug of the U.S. took bronze.
The FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police allege Wedding and Clark coordinated a November 2023 double homicide in Ontario involving an innocent couple in a mistaken-identity killing, according to the FBI.
Wedding and Clark are also accused of coordinating the murder of another person in May over a drug debt.
The murder and criminal enterprise charges against Wedding carry a mandatory minimum penalty of life in a federal prison.
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