Speaker 1 (00:16):
(silence)
Pam Bondi (19:30):
Morning. Morning. Hi. All right. Good afternoon. Today, the Justice Department is proud to announce new developments in our ongoing investigation into Ryan James Wedding. Wedding is the former Olympian from Canada, who is now the leader of a transnational criminal enterprise. He's currently on the FBI's, and has been, top 10 most wanted list. He controls one of the most prolific and violent drug trafficking organizations in this world. He is currently the largest distributor of cocaine in Canada. Wedding collaborates closely with the Sinaloa Cartel, a foreign terrorist organization, to flood not only American, but also Canadian communities with cocaine coming from Colombia. His organization is responsible for importing approximately 60 metric tons of cocaine a year into Los Angeles via semi-trucks from Mexico. To put that in perspective, 60 metric tons is approximately 40, the weight of 40 standard cars. Imagine that. That's how much cocaine, the weight of 40 cars, he is bringing into our country a year.
(21:12)
In the course of the investigation, more than 35 individuals have been indicted, over 2,000 kilos and numerous weapons have been seized, approximately $3.2 million in cryptocurrency has been recovered, and over 13 million in physical assets has been confiscated. Wedding is also accused of murdering a federal witness after he was indicted in 2024. He used a Canadian website called The Dirty News to post photographs of the witness and his wife in order to locate him, which ultimately succeeded. The witness was gunned down in a restaurant in Medellin before he could testify against Wedding. Today we're unsealing a new indictment, charging Wedding with two additional counts of witness tampering and intimidation, murder, money laundering, and drug trafficking. The website that was used to hunt down this witness and his wife, that has since been removed. That has been deleted.
(22:25)
Protecting federal witnesses from retaliation is core to the department's mission. It's about individual safety, but more, it's about protecting the rule of law itself. The new indictment also includes several other individuals involved in the murder of the witness and other crimes in connection with this criminal enterprise. You're going to be hearing more about that from the people behind me. We're working very closely with our partners at the State Department and the Department of Treasury. The State Department has raised the reward for Ryan Wedding from $10 million to $15 million. We're offering $2 million rewards for information leading to the arrest of those involved in the murder of the witness.
(23:16)
The Treasury Department's foreign asset control is seizing assets belonging to approximately 19 of the targets associated with Wedding's criminal enterprise worth hundreds of millions of dollars. I want to thank the FBI, the US Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, as well as our Canadian law enforcement partners for their steadfast commitment to bring Ryan Wedding to Justice. I also want to thank the Colombian National Police who have greatly helped us. Let me be clear. Drugs are killing our kids. Whether you are a street-level drug drug dealer, a
Pam Bondi (24:00):
Common street-level drug dealer or an international drug kingpin, we are coming for you. We will find you and you will be accountable and held to justice for your crimes. It's killing our kids, it's killing our friends, it's killing our relatives, and this guy is responsible for a tremendous amount of that horror. President Trump gave us one mission, make America safe again and we will not sit idly by and let these drug dealers continue to do business, run rough shot on our neighborhoods and put the American people and our Canadian people in harm's way. To the American people, the Justice Department will use every tool available to catch these monsters. Thank you to all of our partners in this fight. From day one, Ryan Wedding has been on the top of Director Patel's radar to get him. We have talked about him constantly and I'd now like to introduce Director Patel, who has done a tremendous job in his efforts to catch these monsters. Director Patel.
Director Patel (25:22):
Thank you, General. As the Attorney General stated, our mission since the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General and this tremendous team was assembled by President Trump is to safeguard American lives. Already this year, thanks to the Department of Justice's leadership in combination with the interagency, including this FBI, have seized record amounts of narcotics to include record amounts of cocaine, including record amounts of fentanyl. All of these narcotics are enabled by our enemies to go after our youth and our communities and kill and destroy American civilization. Under President Trump's leadership, we have been shutting that down since day one. As the Attorney General mentioned, this is an indictment, an additional indictment, an arrest of multiple subjects, nearly a dozen more, and that brings a total to approximately 36 indicted, and you'll hear the details from the tremendous team established here by the Attorney General. Most importantly, you do not get to be a drug kingpin and evade the law.
(26:22)
Make no mistake about it, Ryan Wedding is a modern-day iteration of Pablo Escobar. He's a modern-day iteration of El Chapo Guzmán. This Justice Department and this FBI will work with our Canadian counterparts and the government officials across the world to bring him to justice. He is responsible for engineering a narco-trafficking and narco-terrorism program that we have not seen in a long time. He will not evade justice. We are here today because this Department of Justice behind Attorney General's brilliant leadership and the Deputy Attorney General have made it clear to the American people with the indictments they have brought that law enforcement and agencies like this FBI will lead the effort to go out there and make sure these animals are brought to justice. And that's exactly what we will do. This inner agency step is a huge, huge step towards obtaining justice for so many American lives lost and so many American lives saved, thanks to the courageous efforts of law enforcement.
(27:23)
This is what a great team looks like, working together for the American people under the motto that President Trump set forth to make America safe again. It's incredibly humbling for this FBI to be a part of it and to lead out the efforts on Ryan Wedding. And for those of you out there that have any information on Ryan Wedding, now is the time to speak up. Now is the time to help us. This FBI has always engaged the public around the world for their assistance in bringing some of the world's most dangerous criminals and terrorists to justice and we are doing so again today. He will not evade justice, he will not evade our capture. He will not evade arrest and he will not evade prosecution. Because of the Attorney General's leadership here today, we are taking a huge, huge step in that direction and I'm honored to be a part of this FBI and leading its men and women in law enforcement on a daily basis.
(28:14)
It's really one of the best things I've ever encountered. And the teamwork is something I just want to stress more than anything. Our federal, state and local partners have bonded together like never before to bring you these results that we've talked about these last eight, nine months. And today is just yet another example of a historic achievement for the Trump administration in safeguarding American lives. And with that, I'd like to turn it over to the Assistant Director in Charge of our Los Angeles Field office, Akil Davis for some more details about the FBI's work. Thank you.
Akil Davis (28:49):
Good morning. My name is Akil Davis, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Los Angeles division. Today we are here to highlight the success of the FBI's Homeland Security Task Force in which this operation fell under. Our Homeland Security Task Force is made up of several federal agencies along with state and local counterparts. We work closely with RCMP, as you're going to hear from later to target the Ryan Wedding drug trafficking organization. Make no mistake, Ryan Wedding is extremely dangerous. He's extremely violent and he's extremely wealthy. He's being protected by the Sinaloa Cartel along with others in the country of Mexico. We will find him and we will bring him to justice. He's so important to the efforts of the United States government that the State Department has put up a $15 million reward for his capture. Let me say that again, a $15 million reward for his capture.
(29:53)
Ryan wedding has orchestrated murders against his rivals, against cooperating witnesses, against anybody that crosses his path. And as you've heard already, he has trafficked record levels of drugs, fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, all the things that are rampant on our streets, he has been a part of that and a main cause of that. And that is why you see so much resources dedicated to dismantling his organization, which we have done mostly here today. We will capture Ryan Wedding. We will bring him to justice. If you have information leading to his capture, you can contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or tips.fbi.gov. Make no mistake, Ryan Wedding is dangerous. Do not approach him on your own. Please call us and let us do our job. Thank you. I will now turn it over to United States attorney Bill Oseely.
Pam Bondi (30:55):
Bill Oseely came from California to be here today. That's how important this case is. And President Trump, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and I are thrilled to have Bill Oseely on our team. I think Deputy Attorney General Blanche talks to Bill Oseely daily and I talk to him at least once a week. He is doing an incredible job to keep America safe and to keep Californians safe. So it's my honor now to have Bill join us.
Bill Oseely (31:25):
Thank you, ma'am. I'm Bill Oseely. I am the first assistant U.S. attorney at the Central District of California, the leader of that office. As the Attorney General said today, an indictment was unsealed against Ryan James Wedding, a former snowboarder who was once an Olympic athlete and who is now on the FBI's top 10 most wanted list and the subject of a $15 million reward. Wedding and 14 other defendants, including a Canadian lawyer and a Latin pop star are federally charged with orchestrating the January 2025 murder of a witness who was shot five times in the head at a restaurant in Columbia and who died instantly. Wedding placed a bounty on the victim's head in the erroneous belief that the victim's death with result in the dismissal of criminal charges against him and his international drug trafficking ring and would further ensure that he was not extradited to the United States. He was wrong. The murder also involved a Canadian website as the Attorney General discussed, which claimed to be a news outlet. This so-called news outlet, the Dirty News was paid by a co-defendant to post a photograph of the victim, witness and his wife online so that he could be hunted down and killed. Law enforcement yesterday sees that website pursuant to a judicially authorized warrant. That website no longer exists. I want to say this, to Mr. Wedding and to the other defendants involved in his drug trafficking organization. Your days are numbered. Our agents and prosecutors will relentlessly pursue you and anyone who assists you and bring you to justice, not just anywhere. We're going to bring you to justice in the United States of America. And I want to just add a couple things here. Mr. wedding is the most prolific cocaine trafficker in Canada, but he used Southern California, my district, as a hub for his logistics to move the cocaine.
(33:37)
The reason he selected California is because of California's weak laws on crime. They knew if they were popped with cocaine in California, they probably wouldn't get much of a sentence, but they made one big miscalculation. They didn't think about us, the U.S. Department of Justice, attorney General Bondi, and what this administration would do to individuals like him who use the United States to traffic their drugs and he will be brought to justice, I'm confident of that. I want to note, the lawyer that we arrested yesterday, we arrested 12 people yesterday in an international takedown. You're going to hear more about that. One of which is this lawyer in Canada. 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.
(34:26)
So all this to say, it doesn't matter who you are or where you are, when the United States government and this Department of Justice decides we're going after someone, we're going to get you. America always gets its guy. And let me tell you this as well. Not only do we have a mandate from the Attorney General and as the Attorney General and the FBI director said to make America safe again by the president through this operation. Today we're making North America safe again. And with that I'll turn it over to Chris Landberg, senior Bureau Official at the Department of State. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
You. Great. Thank you. Good morning. So I'm Chris Landberg, head of the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Bureau at the Department of State. I want to thank the Attorney General for hosting us today for this important event. So today the Department of State, as you've heard, is continuing to fulfill one of President Trump's first promises when he took office to stop the brutal criminals who are trafficking deadly drugs into our country. In coordination with the FBI and our partners in Mexico and Canada, the Department of State is increasing our reward offer, as you have heard, to up to $15 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Ryan James wedding. This is a $5 million increase from our previous reward offer. Wedding abandoned an Olympic level athletic path for depraved violence and cocaine trafficking. He worked closely with a foreign terrorist organization, Sinaloa Cartel, as you've heard, to traffic bulk quantities of cocaine from South America to the United
Speaker 2 (36:00):
… States and Canada. As you have also heard, his heinous crimes did not end there. In January 2025, Wedding allegedly ordered the murder of a US federal witness in Medellin, Colombia. In addition to our focus on taking down Wedding, we are offering rewards up to $2 million each for information leading to the unknown assassins responsible for that January 2025 murder. We hope the public will recognize these criminals from surveillance photographs taken the day of the assassination in Medellin and will come forward to identify them.
(36:35)
These brazen illegal activities will be stopped and the State Department will continue to apply all its tools, including rewards programs, to pursue violent criminals, drug traffickers, and those who assist narco-terrorist organizations. We will continue to build a stronger, safer, and more prosperous hemisphere in the Americas by ensuring that no one, not even former Olympians, is above the law. Thank you very much.
(37:01)
And now, I'd like to introduce John Hurley, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the Department of Treasury.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
Thanks. Morning, everyone. Thank you, Attorney General Bondi, for all the work you do to keep our communities safe. Today we're leveraging Treasury's long-standing counter-narcotics tools alongside law enforcement and international partners for maximum effect. Under President Trump's leadership, alongside these partners, Treasury is targeting one of the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives, Ryan Wedding. This action is part of a broader administration effort to stop the flow of deadly narcotics into the United States, a crisis that has taken far too many American lives.
(37:47)
Ryan Wedding is responsible for moving, as the Attorney General said, multi-ton quantities of cocaine through Colombia and Mexico for distribution in the United States and Canada. He's also believed to have ordered dozens of murders around the world. Wedding operates through a complex web of individuals and companies to launder his drug proceeds, using everything from front businesses to luxury cars to cryptocurrency.
(38:11)
Today, Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control, imposed financial sanctions on Wedding and his network. These targets span the globe and have enabled his criminal enterprise by laundering money, providing protection and intelligence, assisting in murders and even training hitmen. Our sanctions are designed to cut Wedding in his network off from the US and international financial system, and help put an end to his deadly activities. Most importantly, for Treasury, US international businesses are now on notice. Should you choose to assist Wedding by material materially supporting him and his network, we will find you, cut you off from the US financial system, and help our DOJ partners bring you to justice as well.
(38:53)
I'll close with this. President Trump, Attorney General Bondi, Director Patel, our other interagency partners, and Secretary Bessent are leading the fight against narcotics trafficking. The Trump administration will never stop fighting to protect the American people, and we at Treasury are very proud to contribute to that mission. And I'll be followed by Michael Duheme, the commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Thank you.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Mike Duheme, commissioner of the RCMP. I want to begin by thanking Attorney General Pam Bondi for inviting me for this special announcement, I would quite say historical announcement as well, considering what we're dealing with.
(39:35)
I'm pleased to be here today to highlight significant results by the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, better known as the RCMP. As Director Patel mentioned, the RCMP and FBI have been working together to disrupt and target organized crime affecting both our countries and other countries around the world. No single agency or nation can combat transnational organized crime alone, this is why strong, trusted partnerships are essential, just as we continue to illustrate in this file.
(40:06)
As part of the FBI operation, Giant Slalom, the highest level of organized crime were targeted for their involvement in a range of serious crimes, as you heard earlier. From drug trafficking to murder, conspiracy to commit murder and continuing criminal enterprise. The RCMP in Canada, as well as its office located in Bogota, Los Angeles, and Mexico, worked closely with the FBI throughout the investigation. Yesterday morning, the RCMP and Ontario Provincial Police proceeded by arresting seven Canadians with ties to the Wedding organized crime group. I want to emphasize that our work is not done. Fugitive Ryan Wedding remains one of the top threats to Canadian public safety, and as per the previous indictment, continues to run an over a billion dollars a year criminal enterprise.
(40:55)
I would also like to take the option to thank everyone in the RCMP, the FBI, and US Department of Justice, who has spent the last two years and countless of hours away from their family to get the job done when it looks at Operation Giant Slalom. Thank you for your partnership and protecting Canadians, Americans, and people around the world.
Speaker 5 (41:19):
Thank you. There's one thing I wanted to add. This is an announcement and we're up on a hard stop. We can take a few questions if you have them, but first, Director Patel, will you add something about his description for us, please? I don't know if we really got that he could also change his description or Akhil. Go ahead. Thanks.
Akil Davis (41:38):
Can we turn those around?
Speaker 5 (41:39):
Yes. Let's turn these around.
Akil Davis (41:47):
Ryan Wedding is approximately 6'4" and 230 to 250 pounds. As you see in these pictures here, please understand that he might change his hair color, his appearance, and do anything to avoid capture. But someone like Ryan Wedding is going to stick out in Mexico and that is why we're soliciting the public's help to try to identify, locate him and arrest him. Again, there's a $15 million reward for information leading through his arrest and capture. Thank you.
Speaker 5 (42:20):
Questions?
Speaker X (42:20):
Lana.
Speaker 6 (42:26):
General Bondi, on topic first, it was mentioned that the Sinaloa Cartel is helping to protect him. Are Mexican authorities cooperating with the US and helping to secure his arrest? And I also have an off-topic as well.
Speaker 5 (42:36):
Yes, is the short answer. Do you want to add something, Akhil?
Akil Davis (42:40):
Sure. We are working with our legal at attache office housed at the Embassy in Mexico City to try to locate and arrest Wedding, again, through to…
Speaker X (42:50):
[inaudible 00:43:01].
Speaker 6 (43:25):
… remaining files.
Speaker 5 (43:27):
So, we have released over 33,000 Epstein documents…
Speaker 7 (43:53):
… on the Justice Department website. What are you doing here over the next 30 days, as we understand it?
Speaker 5 (43:59):
We will continue to follow the law with maximum transparency, while protecting victims.
Speaker X (44:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (44:08):
When you say follow the law-