True Patriot Love - Ryan Wedding： Why Canadians Didn’t Know How Dangerous He Really Was

00:00:00.000 right back at it in between Christmas and New Year's here we are at TPL and I'll tell you this

00:00:10.800 the FBI hasn't taken a break either over the last couple of days they seem to be honing in and

00:00:16.240 getting closer to Ryan Wedding I don't know how to operate the teleprompter forgive me I'll read

00:00:21.760 this to you he's a former of course former Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned alleged drug kingpin

00:00:27.660 and one of the FBI's 10 most wanted fugitives in the U.S. authorities want him for allegedly running

00:00:33.720 a vast and violent transnational drug trafficking enterprise responsible for importing multi-ton

00:00:40.000 quantities of cocaine fentanyl heroin and methamphetamine from Colombia through Mexico

00:00:45.340 into the U.S. and Canada he's considered extremely dangerous and accused accused of orchestrating

00:00:52.420 dozens of murders globally including the killing of a U.S. federal witness in Colombia in 2025 putting

00:01:00.240 him on the FBI top 10 most wanted joining me today Paul Micucci happy post holidays man same to you

00:01:08.180 Mike happy post holidays and you know the one thing I actually noted when we we prep for this show

00:01:13.880 this gentleman is 44 years old yeah so he's a young guy right a young guy who's very athletic and

00:01:20.980 uh somehow went off the apparently went off the track and has orchestrated this huge drug cartel

00:01:29.160 um that we sort of were for some reason uh notified about it uh when Pam Bondi and the U.S. government

00:01:38.380 stood up and said hey by the way he's on the most wanted list and yeah yeah he's the guy well that's

00:01:45.020 almost the biggest takeaway so far on all of this for me I said to you guys when we were when we got

00:01:50.440 together this morning whoever heard of Ryan Wedding like the name would stick out in my mind

00:01:55.980 you know we got chapel all of the big drug lords that we've known throughout the years yeah we know

00:02:02.160 their names this is one of the biggest allegedly and we found out about it from the FBI yeah he never

00:02:08.300 came up on my radar before that no no and which is interesting and you know his uh transportation his

00:02:15.700 legal everything is right here in in Canada um across the country uh representing him representing

00:02:22.940 him through the U.S. Mexico uh we weren't even aware of it to tell you the truth no and it's funny that

00:02:29.560 you say Pam Bondi because she got a lot of heat at that time that she was just throwing shade at

00:02:33.940 Canada but as the numbers came out a billion dollars worth of drug trade at the wholesale level

00:02:38.940 uh between uh Colombia Mexico and uh U.S. and Canada that enough is a pretty big uh network but

00:02:49.640 apparently this is a global thing like he's into Europe and Asia and uh of course yeah like you

00:02:57.000 point out a snowboarding kid from Thunder Bay not all that uh not all that uh experienced in the world

00:03:03.760 you would think outside of Canada and here he is running this big operation well and you know go

00:03:08.840 back a little bit you know as we as we proceed to 2026 look back you know we were told at one point

00:03:15.040 that the whole tariff initiative was based on the fact that we had an uh crazy outbreak of a drug

00:03:23.440 oh yeah we were the fentanyl capital of the world we were the world and we denied it so we said okay

00:03:29.520 we're not you know we don't have this problem then we threw a bunch of people on the border

00:03:35.420 you know everyone we're gonna hire you know a couple thousand people to go secure the border

00:03:41.420 so we did um and then voila all of a sudden we find out that Ryan Wedding is the mastermind

00:03:50.280 behind the international drug cartel yeah and now he's hiding somewhere in Mexico

00:03:55.740 I don't know if you saw him on your last trip but uh I did not well listen if I did I would be 15

00:04:01.280 million dollars richer because that's what they're offering up in a reward but yeah apparently

00:04:04.840 they uh they are getting uh here's today's update recent raids by Mexican authorities in Mexico City

00:04:10.760 and surrounding areas conducted in cooperation with the U.S. law enforcement targeted properties

00:04:15.520 linked to wedding and these operations led to the seizure of 62 high-end motorcycles

00:04:20.660 wow vehicles artwork drugs ammunition and two Olympic medals neither of them his because he didn't win

00:04:27.760 one oh so that that was an ad uh an odd did he buy it did he buy it he must I guess online yeah

00:04:34.560 you don't know I well I know the swimmers all the time to sell them you know a lot of the guys who

00:04:39.880 have hard times yeah I think uh Greg Leganis who like you know no way the diver or whatever yeah he I

00:04:46.420 think he had to sell his I just saw it somewhere but yeah that's good I bet you if you actually win

00:04:51.140 one of those they'll let you replace it too I think that you get it officiated but uh he's known as

00:04:56.180 El Jefe and Giant and uh his criminal organization uh you know really became exposed when he was uh

00:05:05.280 he was arrested for cocaine trafficking in the late 2000s I think he you know I think he was starting

00:05:14.900 to unravel at that point but still we hadn't heard of him he did three years for uh trafficking in the

00:05:20.480 US uh he did some here in Canada as well the RCMP but like I say not a name I had ever heard before

00:05:28.180 no no it's and it's interesting and it's kind of the way this is unrolling I don't know if you saw

00:05:33.520 the movie The Running Man over Christmas but no but I I'm going to on your recommendation well it has

00:05:39.320 kind of that feel to it all of a sudden you know he's disclosed now he's on the run there's you know

00:05:45.980 there's a bounty on his head and now we seem to be getting these updates where we're getting closer

00:05:50.260 and closer to him yeah and I assume there's going to be a you know a final scene somewhere upcoming

00:05:58.520 because we keep getting notification that it's about to happen or they usually don't they don't make

00:06:05.100 releases like uh they're on a wild goose chase usually they're they've already got the guy they've

00:06:12.400 got their man in their sights yeah before and and part of this would be using uh the news to

00:06:18.920 distract him or confuse him or whatever the case is unnerve him because he's definitely watching the

00:06:25.220 news at any given time he's watching this podcast I do hope uh Ryan subscribe tell a friend uh and when

00:06:31.520 you get to prison but you know you you raised a really interesting point a few minutes ago we were

00:06:37.060 all put on alert these tariffs were meant against Canada for all of I mean for a million reasons but

00:06:43.300 the first reason that Trump popped out with was well you you know you're providing a drug problem to my

00:06:48.280 country yeah okay so if we get this guy to your point if if our man's captured there shouldn't be

00:06:55.300 any more drug trafficking of that level into Canada we've made a really good at least a really big dent in

00:07:03.080 it uh this problem so now we're back we're good with the tariffs we can go back to where we were

00:07:08.940 well yeah yeah no there's a lot of other issues right now it kind of it proceeded ahead after that

00:07:15.180 but it's true he piled a lot of stuff on but the first thing that we heard was that this was a real

00:07:21.000 problem and it was the number one stopping factor yeah well but if this is the major arm that was

00:07:26.600 transporting all this fentanyl and other drugs into Canada yeah then yeah it should if you think about

00:07:32.980 it actually should eliminate quite a bit of the challenges that we have and hopefully with our

00:07:38.020 increased border security which you know we we're paying a ton more money yeah we've hired people

00:07:44.560 we've trained people we brought people in we should be able to be nipping that one in the bud

00:07:49.480 um transportation wise I think we covered that because we found out you know through uh the group and

00:07:57.160 from BC to Brampton and all around we've seemed to have nipped sort of how the or figured out how the

00:08:04.460 transportation of all this fentanyl was happening right so now we know it was being warehoused uh

00:08:11.480 warehouse store logistics logistics containers transportation you know the the guy who actually

00:08:19.020 was the original gentleman who uh turned on him uh quite frankly was the logistics the transportation

00:08:26.900 company that was moving it back and forth and he had lots of issues on his own um and then you

00:08:32.720 know his lawyer who was defending him here right he's been in the news quite a bit uh you know very um

00:08:39.560 outwardly you know not shy uh Deepak Paradkar yeah at cocaine lawyer I think yeah he wasn't really

00:08:49.320 hiding the issue that what he was doing so he got somebody off on uh I think two kilograms of was that

00:08:55.660 right uh Christophe it was a a two kilogram drug charge and he was so proud of himself he changed

00:09:01.600 his handle um but and only got a reprimand from the lost society didn't get uh his you know disbarred

00:09:09.700 no he didn't get disbarred or anything for it I I by the way he's referred to as many uh lawyers in

00:09:14.880 the Toronto area as Napoleon he comes out a little hard uh certainly impressed with himself but it was

00:09:21.780 interesting because this guy got out on bail yeah five million dollars bail five million yep now why

00:09:29.480 would they let's go back and talk about why they arrested him they arrested him because he advised

00:09:36.480 Ryan Wedding one of the top one of the top 10 most wanted FBI uh most wanted criminals he recommended to

00:09:45.820 Ryan Wedding that he kill a star client a star witness somebody who would definitely be able to

00:09:51.540 take him down um in in a case out of Columbia right that was alleged they were saying that that's why

00:09:58.100 they have evidence they say that he did do that okay so it's alleged by the FBI yeah who placed him

00:10:05.580 under arrest and then released him on five million dollars bail right so get thinking about this

00:10:10.760 first of all probably the lawyer you want if you've got a drug charge against you that's

00:10:16.500 significant sounds like he's got a a way about him whatever the case but also if you were the FBI

00:10:25.080 and you only let him and you knew that he could get five million dollars together to put aside

00:10:30.400 why wouldn't you make that a higher amount why wouldn't you press the judge to give a higher bail

00:10:37.700 amount I have a theory on this if I may and this is just a theory there's Mike's theory

00:10:43.820 Mike's theory not Paul's theory Christophe if it's also your theory uh go ahead and shout it out

00:10:50.600 he's bait I think they're using him to find out who I think they're putting him out on the street

00:10:56.480 to see who comes after him because he's the next problem that they have in court yeah yeah probably

00:11:04.020 you know when I say they I mean the Ryan camp yeah the camp they you know he's got all the details

00:11:09.600 the client privilege privilege is an issue so I'm assuming he still has to deal with that issue and

00:11:14.680 they do too um but yeah I'm sure they're actually trying to see who comes and knocking at the door

00:11:21.840 trying to get him figure out what he's going to do next yeah yeah influence him or or or make him

00:11:27.100 unable to have influence so go back for a minute because I want to before we leave it Mike I just want

00:11:31.900 to go back through this so this is all done so you know the end of the running man game comes to an end

00:11:39.600 and quite frankly they find Ryan whether he makes it out or not whether he surrenders that'll all kind

00:11:46.780 of play out like it plays out wherever in Mexico they do find him or even if he's in Mexico he might

00:11:53.080 not even be there for all we know but but wherever they find him they find him it looks like they're

00:11:58.140 telling us they're getting closer so we're getting the news in advance like you mentioned um unless

00:12:04.360 he's really a cunning guy and he's just he's led as a decoy and he's somewhere else you wonder right

00:12:10.580 like he's managed to evade authorities to this point he has enough money grapes he could he could

00:12:16.160 have had plastic surgery and disappeared and you know be living somewhere under another alias but

00:12:21.760 say they that's not true and they do find him they do bring him in they do all that stuff

00:12:26.700 okay we've nipped the biggest what are they what did you mention they call him the giant or

00:12:32.440 el jefe so el jefe um in in the fbi said he was he's the modern day el chapo

00:12:40.760 so they do cap that off okay so that's it now so now we are uh let's say we've reduced the

00:12:53.700 transportation into canada of fentanyl cocaine all those things by half all right significantly

00:13:01.220 anyway maybe more okay maybe more so is there a need i guess there's always a need to secure the

00:13:08.760 border and to make sure things happen but then we can go back and say okay it's not a problem in our

00:13:13.580 country anymore so should we okay and and this is kind of what good one for jeff wilson and his uh

00:13:19.600 uh the outbreak response so then if the source is eliminated or a part of the source of the drug

00:13:27.580 trafficking is eliminated should we not start to see the impacts it's a good question and homelessness

00:13:33.880 street people so it should should we now start to see that because this has been going on for a while

00:13:40.380 now i'm wondering if you know if we talk to the local police and and the counselors on the street

00:13:47.880 are we seeing less now i also wonder if this is just the lowest hanging fruit with a large amount of

00:13:56.440 drugs and crime attached to it uh and once this is removed from the plant will we be able to see

00:14:02.580 other fruit behind it uh you know from other cartels other groups will taking a large chunk

00:14:10.060 of this problem away reveal what's remaining and will we pursue that because where there's a gap

00:14:18.840 this criminal element has a tendency to fill the void quickly with their own sources another route in

00:14:27.660 for the original guys how do we stop it from building back how do we stop from transporting it

00:14:34.620 into canada how do we stop whatever's been stopped with ryan wedding that now is a void well how do we

00:14:41.280 stop the criminal element from filling that void in canada again but we do know how it was transported

00:14:46.920 so the interesting thing i always find in these cases is we do know how it's transported into canada

00:14:51.360 yeah so you know we do know the ports it comes in uh we know the transportation logistics so quite

00:14:58.640 frankly i find it a little bizarre that we keep asking the same good point it really is well it's a good

00:15:05.420 point like if we know it's coming in through these ports in this manner so if i'm in montreal and i'm

00:15:11.100 coming let's be serious you're in montreal it comes into the port of montreal which you know uh years

00:15:17.600 ago the port authority got quite weakened as far as the police force we know that so say it comes in through

00:15:23.060 montreal it's coming down to ontario there's only so many routes down it's not super complicated right

00:15:34.820 we don't have multiple highways to come down is what you're saying to me paul that the 401 yeah is

00:15:41.680 the drug traffic route the cocaine highway pretty much right if that's the route it's coming down on

00:15:48.280 you know unless oh my god the 401 is cocaine highway unless they're going through the country

00:15:53.080 unless they're taking country yeah scenic you know route and they're not there's no way that because

00:15:58.100 there's truck restrictions you get yourself caught that way exactly so they wouldn't be doing that

00:16:01.780 unless there was you know a reason to get off the highway for an accident or whatever so

00:16:05.300 they're coming straight down so that's fine if they're coming out of bc

00:16:10.180 that's an even easier one quite frankly right no your point is is a very simple

00:16:18.140 transportation routes like we're not a complicated country so i find it very interesting for these

00:16:23.300 conversations all the time how is it coming into canada holy crap like we only have coming in our

00:16:28.240 ports yeah or it's coming on a truck right and we only have so many major routes to transport so

00:16:33.520 now we do have way stations we have truck uh you know areas that we do check trucks for loads and such

00:16:41.520 just outside of uh vancouver just outside of toronto um in and i can use this example in a big way

00:16:50.840 yeah caladin has what used to be farmers fields now filled i'm talking you know six or seven high

00:16:59.140 of these containers that are widely obviously unregulated by anybody they're sitting there they've

00:17:07.320 passed whatever inspection needs to happen and they're sitting there well i drive by these and

00:17:12.100 i think to myself what do you think's in there how much crime is in those containers uh and and

00:17:20.980 obviously mto can only do so much border services being on our highways can only do so much i think

00:17:27.660 you get a point like if it's coming in at ports it's coming in on trucks and it's making its way on

00:17:32.520 these highways yeah what are we doing well we're waiting for the fbi to tell us we have a drug

00:17:39.620 problem and and the number one guy it's you know born in thunder bay was olympic skier it's a little

00:17:46.680 it is a kind of a bizarre it's a bizarre story really like if you if you go back and think about

00:17:51.660 this a few months ago yeah when we were all sitting watching tv and all of a sudden he popped up and then

00:17:56.340 they showed that you know that picture of him you know skiing down the hill you know it's 23 late 23 years

00:18:02.340 later in 20 in 2002 he competed for canada salt lakes uh so this is uh he allegedly started in

00:18:10.120 2010 involvement with organized crime uh dealing i guess in canada and it just expanded and expanded

00:18:19.000 uh he was added to the fbi's 10 most wanted fugitives list march of this year yeah so 25 23 years

00:18:28.480 later here he is on the top 10 most wanted list and we we didn't pick him up well for 23 years he

00:18:35.360 went widely unnoticed by me okay yeah i guess we didn't pick him up i guess it did have to be he was

00:18:42.100 you know caught in maybe uh from what i've read it's kind of a cross-border coordinated effort that

00:18:48.240 they surveilled him there were points in time when they were close enough to him that they could have

00:18:53.600 moved on them and they didn't they just wanted to see it all play out and see how it led and who was the

00:18:58.040 who was the mastermind behind it they're like me they're sitting there going there's no way this

00:19:02.800 guy is the head of this thing so who else is behind him and that may have been look weird you know

00:19:08.380 44 year old guy former skier so you know probably hung around skiing ski bum for probably 25 to 30 years

00:19:17.620 of his life and then all of a sudden got it together and figured out how to be the international drug

00:19:22.020 cartel leader yeah yeah listen maybe maybe there's always you know fast ride to the top paul it's a

00:19:30.000 fast right that's a fast ride to the bottom but uh down that hill but it is it does seem the story

00:19:36.160 seems uh how do i say it doesn't seem very plausible but it seems like it needs to be dug into more

00:19:42.660 and quite unraveled because that's where you know as we were as we're watching and listening to it

00:19:47.920 and now the kind of the end here where we're kind of getting closer we're getting closer we're getting

00:19:53.420 closer it does seem it's an odd ending it's a little calculated yeah it's almost like the authorities

00:20:00.680 know exactly what they're doing and they're just making a play out the best they can uh i'll tell you

00:20:05.260 this uh thanks to christoph and everybody else in our uh news capture team we'll keep an eye on this

00:20:11.040 but i'm glad we sat down and talked about it because my my two takeaways three takeaways were

00:20:16.240 this lawyer better watch his back he's out there he's bait on the end of a hook to try and get more

00:20:21.620 information or to get closer to ryan wedding uh two how come i never heard of ryan wedding before if

00:20:28.000 he's the biggest kingpin and uh you know the the third thing is okay now that we're getting down to

00:20:35.320 this who's really behind this guy i think that's the next thing we're going to find out about and i hope

00:20:40.780 that we do it together here paul thank you thanks appreciate it don't forget subscribe like

00:20:45.800 tell a friend and visit tplmedia.ca don't hesitate to donate or subscribe that's how we keep this

00:20:53.360 thing running thanks see you next time

True Patriot Love - December 31, 2025

Ryan Wedding： Why Canadians Didn’t Know How Dangerous He Really Was

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