Tag: Operation Giant Slalom

Inside Ryan Wedding’s Seized MotoGP Bike Collection
[ad_1]

Olympian Ryan Wedding’s collection of MotoGP racing bikes belong in a motorcycle museum, an expert on the sport says after Mexican authorities seize 62 in raids executed last month as the manhunt for the accused fugitive drug lord enters its second year
In late December, Mexican special forces spread out across Mexico City with search warrants targeting four homes, all part of the international manhunt that has stretched into its second year, connected to accused fugitive narco kingpin Ryan Wedding – the Canadian Olympian who remains on the run with a $15 million FBI reward hanging over his head.

Credit: FBI Los Angeles

What authorities seized in those raids included a museum-worthy collection of MotoGP bikes, the motorcycle equivalent of F1 racing, motorcycles that had been ridden by the greatest racers in the growing sport. Simon Patterson, a journalist who covers MotoGP – which was just purchased by Liberty Group, the company behind Formula 1 – told Los Angeles that he has been studying photos of the 62 motorcycles posted by the FBI field office in Los Angeles, and spotted “instantly recognizable bikes,” that were retired after racing wins by the sport’s greats.

The motorcycles belonged to Wedding, the FBI says, and included three bikes that had been ridden by the biggest name in racing, “the Tom Brady and Michael Jordan of MotoGP,” says Patterson: Valentino Rossi. Wedding somehow obtained three of the priceless bikes, along with a $13 million Mercedes, while running what federal prosecutors call a sprawling narcotics trafficking empire that used stash houses in and around Los Angeles to store its goods. In addition to the three bikes Patterson recognized, Wedding also had a signed sketch by the racer that was seized by the government.
- Valentino Rossi’s 1996 Scuderia AGV Aprilia RS125 (Rossi’s Grand Prix debut)
- Valentino Rossi’s 2011 Ducati Desmosedici GP11 (MotoGP race bike)
- Valentino Rossi’s 2012 Ducati Desmosedici GP12 (MotoGP race bike)
It’s unclear how Wedding obtained such a valuable collection, but among his reputed associates sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department is an Italian special forces mercenary who runs a training program with his company, Windrose Tactical Academy, largely geared toward law enforcement.
Gianluca Tiepolo is the owner of a bike shop Stile Italiano, which specializes in super bikes like the ones in Wedding’s newly seized collection. In a story about his shop, a photo of Tiepolo shows him on top of one of the Ducatis seized last month, said Patterson.

Scroll to continue reading

Members of what U.S. officials call Ryan Wedding’s sprawling narco empire were sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department
Credit: Department of Treasury

Tiepolo steadfastly denies any involvement in the drug trade, and has not faced any criminal charges in connection with Wedding’s enterprise, which has led to dozens of arrests in an L.A-based federal prosecution by California’s Central District, an operation codenamed “Operation Giant Slalom,” a nod to the Team Canada Olympian’s competition as an extreme sports athlete at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

However, Tiepolo has been banned from doing business in the U.S. by the Treasury Department because of his alleged ties to Wedding and his operation. The agency has accused him of helping Wedding launder money through the purchases of the Mercedes and the bikes seized by Mexican officials.

The FBI has seized a motorcycle collection connected to the accused fugitive drug lord Ryan Wedding
Credit: FBI Los Angeles

Patterson describes Wedding’s collection as unique and museum-worthy custom prototype machines. “It’s very rare for them to end up in private ownership.” Wedding is clearly an uber fan of MotoGP, but Patterson said, despite his heavy involvement covering the sport, he had never heard his name bantered about. “I have never encountered him. I have never heard anyone talking about him coming to races. Odd that he is such a fan and it’s never passed my radar.”

Among the other bikes in Wedding’s collection recognized by Patterson include:

Loris Capirossi’s 2003 Ducati Desmosedici GP3

Andrea Iannone’s 2016 Ducati Desmosedici GP16

Andrea Dovizioso’s 2016 Ducati Desmosedici GP16

Jorge Lorenzo’s 2017 Ducati Desmosedici GP17

Ducati Supermono, worth $250,000, one of only 65 in existence

Ron Haslam’s 1987 Elf Honda

Marc Marquez’s 2012 Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol Suter MMX2

Carl Fogarty’s 1994 Ducati 916

Freddie Spencer’s 1984 Honda NSR500

Scott Russell’s 1994 Kawasaki ZXR750

Anthony Gobert’s 1995 Muzzy Kawasaki ZXR750
[ad_2]

Michele McPhee

Source link
January 2, 2026
U.S. Sanctions Expose the Women Aiding Fugitive Ryan Wedding

[ad_1]

Meet the women who were sanctioned by the U.S. Government this week for their roles in propping up the sprawling narco operation helped by former Olympic turned drug lord Ryan Wedding, now a fugitive with a $15 million bounty on his head

Ryan Wedding, federal prosecutors say, sits at the helm of a sprawling narco empire, one protected by the bloodthirsty Sinaloa cartel, an allegedly dirty Canadian lawyer, a cadre of international sicarios, and even an Italian mercenary.

But little has been known – until now – about the women in his life who U.S. federal officials say prop up his business, laundering money and assisting him in “acts of violence,” a Mexican wife, a Colombian girlfriend, and a madam who runs an upscale escort business, and one of those escorts, a Colombian national living in Orlando. This week, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control put the women on a sanctions list, which blocks any assets they have in the United States and prohibits Americans from engaging in any business transactions with them.

His wife, Miryam Andrea Castillo Moreno, a 34-year-old raven-haired beauty from Nuevo León, Mexico, has been part of Wedding’s life since at least 2011, when U.S. officials say she married him in a federal prison where he was serving a short three year sentence after pleading guilty in 2008 to a botched drug deal in San Diego that involved a former Russian KGB agent who was actually working for the FBI. This week, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned her, writing: “Castillo launders drug proceeds for Wedding and has helped him conduct acts of violence.” A day later, the Treasury Department removed her from the list on Thursday, saying that there was no evidence she was involved with his business.

But Wedding’s reputed 23-year-old Colombian girlfriend, Daniela Alejandra Acuña Macías, remains on the sanctions list, accused by U.S. officials of accepting “hundreds of thousands of dollars” from the former Olympian, knowing that the money came from his drug trafficking operation. She has not been charged criminally by U.S. officials and is believed to be somewhere in Mexico.

An accused madam who prosecutors say introduced Wedding to that girlfriend, Carmen Yelinet Valoyes Florez, 47, a Colombian national from Bogotá, behind what authorities call a high-end escort service in Mexico City, was arrested this week as part of the investigation into Ryan Wedding’s criminal network. She faces multiple federal charges, including conspiracy to commit murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise, witness tampering, and money laundering.

Another Colombian national prosecutors described as a “commercial sex worker” was charged with helping Wedding and his top lieutenant, Andrew Clark, track down a cooperating informant so he could be executed. Yulieth Katherine Tejada, 36, was arrested this week at her home in Orlando and is now charged with conspiracy counts related to murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise, witness tampering, and money laundering.

Members of what U.S. officials call Ryan Wedding’s sprawling narco empire were sanctioned this week by the Treasury Department
Credit: Department of Treasury

While on the run as a fugitive with a $15 million U.S. bounty on his head, Wedding – who is believed to have gotten plastic surgery while in hiding – ordered the assassination of the cooperating witness, Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia, 39, who sources say had agreed to work with the FBI in building the case against the ex-Olympian and his consiglieri, Canadian Andrew Clark, 39.

Scroll to continue reading

Prosecutors say that Wedding placed a “multimillion-dollar bounty” on the cooperating witness not long after he and more than a dozen others were indicted by federal prosecutors in Los Angeles in a case dubbed Operation Giant Slalom. Wedding, prosecutors say, had a “citizen journalist” who ran an online website called “Dirty News” that ran the informant’s photo, and then used the madam and the escort as lures to help track Acebo-Garcia down.

The informant was shot dead by a group of unknown assassins in a crowded restaurant inside a Medellin mall on Jan. 31, 2025.

Among the other criminals now accused of helping Wedding execute the victim and to continue to collect profits from his still operational trafficking network, while sitting atop the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, include a coterie of colorful international figures. One is an “Indian-Canadian” criminal defense attorney, Deepak Paradkar, 62, who prosecutors call a key advisor to Wedding and a top lieutenant in the organization, his consiglieri, Canadian Andrew Clark, 39.

Another is former Italian special forces member, Gianluca Tiepolo, who the Treasury Department sanctioned for running a training camp, Windrose Tactical, that allegedly trained Wedding-connected hitmen, along with legitimate law enforcement members. Authorities call him a prolific money launderer who allegedly managed Wedding’s luxury assets, including a fleet of high-end vehicles that included a $13 million Mercedes CLK-GTR seized by the FBI.

Prosecutors also arrested Rolon Sokolovski, 37, a professional poker player and diamond dealer from Toronto who is now accused of helping Wedding launder money through a worldwide cryptocurrency network.

The Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, John K. Hurley, said that his department issued the sanctions as a way of trying to cut Wedding’s criminal partners off from the U.S. financial system in hopes it would “help dismantle the network” the fugitive relies on while he remains on the lam. “Our goal is simple,” Hurley said in a statement. “Make it difficult for criminals like this to profit from poisoning our communities.”

[ad_2]

Michele McPhee

Source link

November 20, 2025
Ryan “El Jefe” Wedding: Fugitive Drug Lord Accused in Witness Hit

[ad_1]

Ryan “El Jefe” Wedding, the former Olympic snowboarder who is now an internationally hunted narco terrorist with a $15 million bounty on his head, was hit with new charges that allege that he conspired with ten others, among them a Canadian defense attorney, an Orlando hooker, and an Israeli professional poker player, to assassinate a witness set to testify against him.

The Department of Justice announced the new charges against Wedding and members of his sprawling narcotics enterprise on Wednesday during a press conference held in Washington, D.C.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said total of eleven people are now orchestrated the cold-blooded assassination of an FBI informant who was cooperating with the Los Angeles-based prosecution of Wedding’s empire.

While on the run as a fugitive with a $15 million U.S. bounty on his head, Wedding – who is believed to have gotten plastic surgery while in hiding – ordered the assassination of the cooperating witness, Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia, 39, who sources say had agreed to work with the FBI in building the case against the ex-Olympian and his consiglieri, Canadian Andrew Clark, 39.

The new indictment outlines the complex steps that were taken to pull off the brazen Jan. 31, 2025, execution of the federal witness at a crowded restaurant inside a Medellin shopping mall – an idea that was initially hatched, prosecutors say, by an “Indian-Canadian” criminal defense attorney, Deepak Paradkar, 62, who was a key advisor to the Wedding organization.

Paradkhar, prosecutors say, advised Wedding and Clark, who was captured in a dramatic takedown in October 2024, the same month Los Angeles federal prosecutors announced charges against the duo in a case dubbed Operation Giant Slalom, that without the testimony the FBI had from the witness, they could not be extradited from Mexico.

First, prosecutors say, they had to find the witness. So, the indictment states, Wedding paid a “citizen journalist” behind the website “Dirty News,” a now-defunct Colombian blog that covered the underworld, to run photos of Acebedo-Garcia and his wife, along with offers of a reward to anyone who would take him out. There was several takers, among them a man prosecutors call a sicario, identied as 40-year-old reputed Montreal hitman known in the streets as 2-Pac, but whose real name is Atna Ohna.

Onha, prosecutors say, was allegedly $150,000 and given 30 grams of coke to help organize the hit with a variety of bad guys on his payroll. The woman prosecutors describe as a “commercial sex worker,” Katherine Tejada, a Colombian woman living as a U.S. green card holder in Orlando, also provided tips about her ex-client to Wedding so that his “Enterprise could locate and kill” him, according to the indictment.

Scroll to continue reading

On the day of the hit, a trio of motorcyclists followed Acebedo-Garcia to the eatery in a coordinated reconnaissance mission. The suspected hitmen then followed him inside, where a single unknown gunman “shot him approximately five times in the head while he was eating in the restaurant.” Another man took a proof of death photo of the victim before they all fled the murder scene on the motorcycles. Those suspects remain at large and are being sought by the FBI.

Multiple unknown suspects are wanted in connection with their role in the Wedding Criminal Enterprise, led by Ten Most Wanted Fugitive, Ryan James Wedding.
To eliminate threats and advance the interests of the Wedding Criminal Enterprise, Wedding allegedly issued orders to… pic.twitter.com/kOY3Gof2yU

— FBI Los Angeles (@FBILosAngeles) November 19, 2025

The killing of a key FBI witness in a case where the number one target remains at large pulled in the highest levels of U.S. law enforcement, including Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel. Among those present for the D.C. confab were U.S. Attorney for California’s Central District Bill Essayli and FBI Special Agent in Charge for the L.A. Field Office Akil Davis.

“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,” Attorney General Bondi said.

The highest levels of U.S. law enforcement gathered in Washington D.C. to announce new charges against Ryan Wedding, including FB SAC for LA Akil Davis flanked by Attorney General Pam Bondi
Credit: FBI

“Ryan Wedding and his associates allegedly imported tons of cocaine each year from Colombia through Mexico and onto the streets of U.S. communities,” added Patel. “His criminal activities and violent actions will not be tolerated, and this is a clear signal that the FBI will use our resources and expertise to find Ryan Wedding and bring him and his associates to justice.”

Despite the rub-out, Clark was in fact extradited to the U.S. in early March, as reported by Los Angeles, and remains held without bail at the federal lockup in DTLA. The new indictment also revealed that Wedding – among the FBI’s top most wanted fugitives – continues to profit from his trafficking network’s drug sales. In August, Los Angeles reported the FBI believes Wedding may have altered his looks with plastic surgery while living under the protective arm of the Sinaloa cartel.

The FBI is focusing its worldwide manhunt for Ryan Wedding – the subject of a $15 million State Department reward – in Mexico and released new Most Wanted posters in Spanish earlier this year
Credit: FBI

Wedding and Clark, prosecutors say, sit at the helm of a transnational murderous drug empire that run a still functioning billion-dollar underworld network, one that stores its drugs at secret stash houses in the Los Angeles area. The duo was initially charged in October 2024 with a plethora of racketeering crimes – including the murders of an elderly Indian couple killed in a case of mistaken identity – a case that Los Angeles covered in an in-depth story that ran spring that explored Wedding’s early career as a budding drug lord.

Their codefendants in the 2024 indictment include a motley coterie of fellow accused crooks. Among them: Nahim Jorge Bonilla, a Latin music executive whose preferred nickname was “The One” and whom investigators believe was negotiating drug deals as the owner of the Miami Beach hot spot Mandrake. There was an Indian trucking magnate, a Toronto hitman, Russian mobsters. In the most recent indictment, prosecutors have added an Israeli professional poker player, the sex worker, the attorney, the citizen journalist, and the alleged sicarios alongside the Wedding organization members indicted in Operation Giant Slalom.

Authorities dismantle the $1 billion cocaine empire led by former Olympian Ryan Wedding
Credit: Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Justice

Wedding, who had represented Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Park City, pleaded guilty just eight years after he competed in that exact race – the giant slalom – in a San Diego federal courtroom. He had been arrested in the process of pulling off drug deal that involved another FBI informant, an ex-KGB agent, when he was busted by investigators with the Drug Enforcement Agency. He then served time with cellmates that included close associates of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, the notorious kingpin who commanded the bloodthirsty Sinaloa cartel for decades, according to prison records.

Andrew Clark, the consiglieri for a sprawling narco outfit, was taken into custody in Mexico in October 2024
Credit: Law Enforcement Source/Los Angeles file photo

Prosecutors now say that when Wedding was released from prison roughly a year after that guilty plea in December 2011, the athlete “founded the Wedding Criminal Enterprise,” which quickly became “the largest supplier of cocaine to Canada.” The enterprise operated in “Mexico, Colombia, Canada, and the United States, among other countries,” prosecutors say, working alongside paramilitary groups and cartels “collaboratively.”

Prosecutors say he moved 60 tons of cocaine a year from the humid climes of South and Central America to the iciest reaches of Canada, and was the “principal administrator, organizer and leader of the criminal enterprise.” And the latest indictment suggests he still is capitalizing on that leadership role.

Los Angeles was Wedding’s hub, the proverbial ground zero for his operation’s sophisticated “transportation network” that stockpiled drugs in warehouses across the city before they were smuggled into Canada by long-haul truckers.

[ad_2]

Michele McPhee

Source link

November 19, 2025