Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel announced charges against Canadian Ryan Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder turned alleged drug trafficker. CBS News' Shanelle Kaul has more.

Washington

Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have announced new charges against Ryan Wedding, a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder, accusing him of leading a transnational drug trafficking organization. Wedding, who has been on the FBI's top ten most wanted list since March of the previous year, is alleged to be the largest distributor of cocaine in Canada and to collaborate with the Sinaloa cartel.

The Department of Justice has unsealed indictments against Wedding and 12 associates, who are also accused of involvement in the killing of an FBI witness. Authorities have increased the reward for information leading to Wedding's arrest to $15 million and imposed new sanctions to disrupt his network, with officials believing he is currently in Mexico.

Bondi, Patel announce charges against former Olympic snowboarder

Looking at this video to our monitors coming to us just moments ago showing Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel announcing new charges against a Canadian athlete that Bondi and Patel say is an international drug trafficker. CBS News correspondent Chanel Call in the newsroom listening into this one. So what did you learn? Well the details here are so fascinating Reid. It feels like this is a script from a movie. This press conference taking place this morning at the Justice Department headquarters and what federal officials are saying is that the person at the center of this massive drug and crime ring is a person named Ryan Wedding and they say this is someone who is a former Olympic snowboarder from Canada who is now a fugitive. They also say this is someone they describe Reid as a modern-day iteration of Pablo Escobar. Take a listen to Pam Bondi. 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 ten 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. And this is somebody who Kash Patel and Pam Bondi have talked about before. If you take a look at my screen here you'll see that Ryan Wedding has been on the FBI's ten most wanted fugitive list since last March. So a lot of interest in Ryan Wedding. Also today the DOJ read unsealing new indictments not just against Ryan Wedding but also against 12 other people who they say were working with Wedding and they say those people were involved in killing a very critical FBI witness in this case. They're now also increasing the reward for any information leading to Ryan Wedding's arrest from 10 million US dollars to 15 million US dollars. Also want to mention this is an international case and there are multiple different agencies who are involved in this investigation. So again take a look at my screen I want to show you this announcement from the Treasury Board announcing new sanctions against that former Canadian Olympian and they call him narco trafficker Ryan Wedding. You'll see this part says Treasury is joining with the FBI and the Department of Justice to cut Wedding and his criminal partners off from the US financial system and help dismantle the network they rely on. Our goal is simple they say make it difficult for criminals like this to profit from poisoning our communities. Now as for where Ryan Wedding might be officials this morning during that press conference read they're saying they believe he's in Mexico and they also believe that he may be being protected in Mexico by the Sinaloa cartel. Wow I remember covering his story back in 2002 in the Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games. What a fall from grace. Thank you so much for that update.

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