TORONTO — A former Olympic snowboarder who is now allegedly running a drug cartel orchestrated the killing of a federal witness by releasing his image to a fake news website, the US justice department has said.

Authorities raised the reward for information leading to the arrest of Ryan Wedding from $10m (£7.6m) to $15m, calling him a modern-day Pablo Escobar, referring to the Colombian drug lord.

FBI Director Kash Patel said Wedding, 44, was "responsible for engineering a narco trafficking and narco terrorism programme that we have not seen in a long time".

The US officials said they believe the Canadian, one of the FBI's 10 most wanted, is living in Mexico under the Sinaloa drug cartel's protection.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi alleged that Wedding was behind the murder of a federal witness in a case against him.

He allegedly placed a bounty by paying C$10,000 ($7,000; £5,400) to have photos of the witness and his wife posted to a Canada-based website, The Dirty Newz, in October 2024 to help locate him. The website has since been removed by the FBI.

The witness was shot and killed in a restaurant in Medellin, Colombia, in January.

Bondi said Wedding had also been charged with witness tampering and intimidation, murder, money laundering and drug trafficking.

The FBI is still seeking unknown suspects directly involved in the murder, including the killer and someone who helped them escape.

At a news conference on Wednesday, US and Canadian law enforcement officials announced a series of other developments in a case against Wedding, including a new indictment and 10 arrests.

Officials said Wedding's organisation operated across North America and other countries and was the largest supplier of cocaine to Canada. It is estimated the cartel brings in more than $1bn a year.

RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme said seven Canadians allegedly linked to the cartel were arrested on Tuesday in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario and Alberta, and would be extradited to the US.

They have been charged with offences including conspiracy to commit murder and drug trafficking.

Among them is Deepak Balwant Paradkar, a Canadian lawyer who is accused of providing "a range of illegal services to Wedding and his drug trafficking organization beyond the scope of a normal attorney-client relationship", the US treasury department said in a release.

They allege Paradkar was paid with "luxury watches and additional fees for these illegal services".

According to the new unsealed indictment, Paradkar advised Wedding and his close accomplice to murder the federal witness in order to avoid extradition from Mexico on criminal charge.

The BBC has attempted to contact Paradkar through his office for comment.

The alleged co-founder of The Dirty Newz, Gursewak Singh Bal, 31, was among those arrested this week.

An eighth person in Canada is still being sought by authorities.

Also detained this week was Carmen Yelinet Valoyes Florez, 47 — a Colombian national who officials allege runs a high-end prostitution ring in Mexico and helped the cartel find the federal witness — and Atna Ohna, 40, of Quebec. He is accused of hiring a hitman for the cartel, later receiving a "bejewelled necklace" for his role in the witness's death.

Wedding competed in Giant Slalom snowboarding for Canada during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

His aliases include "El Jefe," "Giant," "Public Enemy," "James Conrad King," and "Jesse King", the FBI has said.

Officials allege the former Olympian launched his criminal enterprise following his release from a US federal prison in 2011, where he was serving a sentence for cocaine distribution

The FBI alleges that he has ordered dozens of murders across the globe, including in the US, Canada and Latin America. — BBC