← The Underworld Podcast
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- [00:00]
A
Buying a car in Carvana was so easy I was able to finance it through them. I just. Whoa, wait. You mean finance? Yeah, finance. Got pre qualified for a Carvana auto loan, entered my terms and shot from thousands of great car options, all within my budget. That's cool. But financing through Carvana was so easy. Financed, done, and I get to pick up my car from their Carvana vending machine tomorrow. Financed, right? That's what they said. You can spend time trying to pronounce financing, or you can actually finance and buy your car today on Carvana financing, subject to credit approval. Additional terms and conditions may apply. Starting a business can seem like a daunting task unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business. From designing a website to marketing, to selling and beyond, Shopify can help with everything you need. There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz and Allbirds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into Sign up for your $1per month trial@shopify.com SpecialOffer November 20.
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B
2023 in Ontario, Canada, a middle aged couple from India are visiting their children who live together in a rented home in a Toronto suburb. It's been a few months and the trip is winding down. The son's at work and the daughter is downstairs in the house with her parents. Perfectly normal night, that is, until a gunman bursts into the house. This is no random robbery though. It's a hit, one designed to send a message. The shooter lights the house up, firing dozens of shots. The older couple are each hit by at least 20 bullets, killing them both. The daughter is shot 13 times, but somehow she's going to survive. My father was shot in front of me, she tells the cbc. From her hospital bed, I heard my mother's last screams. After that there was complete silence, only the noises of gunshots. A tenant who lives downstairs is able to see a man rushing out the door and jumping into a waiting Ford F150. But that's all the police get for months. In fact, to this day, they still don't know who the shooter is. But after a few months, they do know the motivation. A missing shipment of coke stolen in Southern California. Only thing is, it's a case of mistaken identity. The murdered couple had nothing to do with it. Fast forward a couple of months later to April 1, 2024 in Niagara Falls, Canada, just across the border from the U.S. for weeks, a 23 year old hitman who goes by Mr. Perfect has been texting on an encrypted app with a high level narco in Mexico who goes by Mero Wero. Mr. Perfect is fresh out of prison and looking to put in some work. In fact, he's only been out a month, but he's already been flown to Mexico for five days of military training that cost $100,000, all paid for by Maroero. While there, Mr. Perfect Texts, I am what you now call Elite. Thanks to you brother. Elite isn't all caps and he better be. Cause Mero has a list of people he needs checked off, including quote unquote, a realtor in van for $200,000, some Arabs worth a couple hundo each a Mexi who owned a restaurant, and his wife, someone nicknamed Honcho, for 150, someone named Donnie for 300,000, and a person in Dubai for US$1 million. He texts Mr. Perfect that he stands to earn, quote, a nice 1.5 mil this year if we keep knocking him out the park quick. At one point the hitman texts him, give me the easiest one first. The response maybe the Niagara Falls ginger lol. Adding he'll pay 100k in cover expenses and that Mr. Perfect should drive over from Toronto and quote, blow his top off, which April 1st he does. Dressed in black, he fires a single shot into the head of a 29 year old man believed to be involved in international drug trafficking, then escapes in a white Audi before ditching that car for a green Ford explorer. Unfortunately for Mr. Perfect, he's also Mr. Sloppy. And CCTV picks the whole thing up. Two weeks later, local cops pull over the Ford Explorer on a routine traffic stop before being informed that it might be a murder suspect. They find a whole lot of cash, some ammo and a white iPhone on it which contains the messages he exchanged with the narcotics, which Mr. Perfect had not yet deleted. Which, I mean, Gen Z, you know you can't trust them to do any job, right? And it turns out that killing in Niagara, it's connected to the killings in Toronto. The Indian couple. In fact, the same guy ordered them both. And a few others too. His name isn't Maroero, it's Andrew the dictator Clark, a 34 year old Canadian who only a few years earlier was an elevator mechanic. And he's the second in command of a billion dollar drug cartel with a leader who has an even stranger background. An Olympian snowboarder from the Vancouver area known as Ryan Wedding. And this story has everything. The Sinaloa cartel, ex KGB traffickers, undercover shady Hezbollah linked financers DJ Khaled's mansion in Miami, a broad daylight witness murdered in Medellin, and a whole bunch of coke, fent, meth and murder. This is the Underworld Podcast. Welcome back to the audio. And now visual experience known as the Underworld Podcast, where two journalists, myself, Danny Gold, and and my co host, Sean Williams, bring you a new story of international organized crime. Every single week, we trade off hosting duties, we share some laughs, we learn things about Sean's domestic life against our will. We have fun here.
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C
I mean, in fairness, I do think the listeners want to know what I can bench, but, I mean, I guess we can do that.
- [06:17]
B
As a bonus, there have been a couple comments about you being a chat, like, specifically that word. So tell us, I mean, how much. How much can you bench?
- [06:25]
C
Oh, man. Oh, it's going to be in kilos. You wouldn't know.
- [06:30]
B
Yeah, we've seen a lot of comments, too, with the fashion critiques. A lot of mean things said about Sean's eyebrows. But look, we're in the video game, thanks to our pals at Spotify who graciously let us use their studio. So, you know, we're here to stay for right now. For now. They look good, dude. Don't worry about it. As always, bonus episodes@patreon.com general podcast or you can sign up here on itunes or Spotify merch@underworldpod.com Email us at the Underworld podcast at gmail for whatever. Whatever you want.
- [07:00]
C
No. Are you sure? Like what?
- [07:02]
B
No, no, they look. They look good. Dude. I was just, Just, Just jokes also. Yeah, you know the. The trailer for what? Grand Theft Auto 6 just came out. We need to. If you can get our podcast as one of those radio stations, we need to make that happen. It's the perfect fit. I've never. I mean, peanut butter and jelly, man. Come on.
- [07:20]
C
Yeah, for sure.
- [07:21]
B
Yeah. Now let's. Let's have some fun, gentlemen. And I guess you know seven ladies that listen to us. Ryan Wedding, just a real Renaissance man, right? He could snowboard really well. And he also sells drugs really well, writes LA Magazine. Quote, Wedding ran a $1 billion drug empire along with a motley coterie. How do you say that word? Coterie of criminal compatriots. Among among them, Nahim Jorge Bonilla, a music executive whose preferred nickname was the One, and whom investigators believe was negotiating drug deals as the owner of the Miami beach hotspot Mandrake, an Indian trucking magnate, a Toronto hitman, Russian mobsters and weddings. Childhood buddy Andrew Clark, the Olympian, second in command, known by his alias, the Dictator. I mean, this episode, there's. There's a lot of reporting on the story when it dropped, and I used a whole bunch of it. But both the CBC and the Toronto Star have done some fantastic stuff. There's a good piece in Rolling Stone where the guy actually started reporting on wedding in 2009 for a piece that never ran back then. He had actually been popped on a much smaller drug. Federal drug trafficking charge back then, which is why this guy started reporting on it. That was in San Diego in 2008. There's also a few good pieces in LA magazine as he's getting charged in the California courts.
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C
Wait, so the guy had to stop reporting because there was court restrictions? I don't know. I don't know how it works in the States or in Canada.
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B
No, no, no, no, no. He didn't stop. I think he. He started. That's true. You do have a multimillion. How much? How many? How many million dollars?
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C
100. 100.
- [08:51]
B
What's going on with that lawsuit?
- [08:52]
C
I'm waiting, but I can't say.
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B
You can't say? Does it have to do nothing with, with, you know, maybe like a diddy party or something? Or is it related to your reporting?
- [09:03]
C
It's related to my reporting.
- [09:04]
B
Okay.
- [09:05]
C
Fortunately. Okay, got me on the other stuff.
- [09:08]
B
No, what happened was the guy, I believe he reported it out in 2009 when this was happening, but from the looks of things, probably couldn't sell the story or it wasn't working out. So he, I guess, you know, put it. Shelved it. And then this thing happens where this guy becomes a huge international story and he picked it back up. But that's kind of, you know, good fame. Yeah, it is. I like when that works out that way. Okay. Ryan Wedding. If you look at a picture of the guy, well, one of the ones that circulated, he actually looks like the actor died. Dietrich Bader. I don't know if you guys know who he is, but he's the guy. Specifically, I think he was on the Drew Carey show, but he's also the next door neighbor in Office Space, which is when he looks exact, you know, I'm talking like long hair, kind of receding hairline, mustache. I mean, I'm serious. It's uncanny. The guy, the two chicks at the same time guy, you know, Office Space.
- [09:56]
C
Yeah, sure.
- [09:57]
B
Jesus. But also, he's £240, he's 6 foot 3, he's an athlete. Right. And he's someone who is physically imposing. He's born in 1981, and he grows up in Thunder Bay, Ontario, which is just northeast of the eastern edge of Minnesota on Lake Superior. It's a working class town, sort of Canadian wilderness folk. You know, the vibes.
- [10:17]
C
Yeah, I don't, but I'm guessing it's like the same as Oklahoma. Roughneck vibes, right?
- [10:22]
B
I mean, I think it's a little more. Less hostile, you know, like more flannel.
- [10:27]
C
Okay.
- [10:28]
B
Good at like, you know, camping a lot and snowmobiling. I don't know if you've watched Shoresy or Letterkenny. If you haven't, you really should, but sort of like that, you know.
- [10:36]
C
Okay, yeah, Bon Iver. That's what I'm thinking.
- [10:39]
B
He's a real outdoor kid for sure, you know, but his dad's an engineer and he gets good with computers and he's actually into it. His family is also big in competitive skiing. Here's LA magazine's Michelle McPhee. His father, Rene, was a sought after engineer, proficient in several languages. His mother Karen, was a nurse. Wedding, along with his two sisters, grew up speaking French and English. The natural born athlete had always leaned into adventure sports. Motocross, dirt biking, rugby. But it was snowboarding in which Wedding excelled. His grandparents owned Thunder Bay's Mount Baldy ski resort. And it was here that Wedding learned to shred, embarking on a career path as a competitive Snowboarder. When he's 12, his family moves to Vancouver, where the famous Whistler ski mountain is. And Wedding gets super into snowboarding, winning a big race when he's 12. Coaches describe him as fearless, which, you know, foreshadowing. So another thing Vancouver gets famous for in the 90s, right when wedding moves, there is gangs, but not just any sort of gangs. These gangs are kind of like middle class kids, usually hybrid, multi ethnic gangs who made huge amounts of money in the drug game, in no small part because of Vancouver's lax enforcement and just sort of like, you know, it was a major trafficking center and still is. We have an old episode, I think, on one of those gangsters from nearby. It's a town called Surrey, which I think is south of Vancouver. Bindi Jo hall, which is, you know, a fantastic episode, but you've got young, impressionable Ryan Wedding and he is coming of age, like right at this time when all these guys would be all over the place. At 15, he's good enough to make the national team and he's traveling around the world, probably just, you know, having a great time just being a young snowboarder or surfer, you know, Getting paid to live the life. Like, what a. What a dream he is. He's legit, though. You know, he's preparing for the Olympics, but it's not the easiest life. Lots of training, hard work, all that stuff. In 1999, he wins bronze at the Junior World Championship. And then in 2001, a silver in the Junior World Championships.
- [12:36]
C
All right, I mean, that's pretty good. But did he have one of those jester hats? You know, that's the first thing I think of when I think of snowboarding, because I know almost nothing about it. I mean, that and cool borders, which was amazing on the PS1. Also, shout out to rugby being considered an adventure sport. I like that.
- [12:50]
B
You know, I assume if he was snowboarding in the late 2000s or late 90s, early 2000s, he definitely did have one of those hats he wore down the mountain on, like, special, special days, you know, just kind of. It was the vibe. In 2002, he makes the Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. He's in competition for the Giant slalom. His family, friends cheering him on, but he ends up getting 24th place, which, I mean, 24th place, like, are you really, you really considered an Olympian? If you get 24, Sean, you could probably get 24th place. I mean.
- [13:19]
C
Yeah, Yeah.
- [13:20]
B
I mean, I'm just. I'm just kind of kidding. Being in the Olympics is. Is an insane accomplishment. Unless it's curling, which, you know, you could just kind of show up. I feel like, in that, like, just train for like a year and just kind of make it happen. But you know what? I like, I like the one.
- [13:32]
C
I mean. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, wait. I can't have this. This is anti curling propaganda. This is a 500 year old sport. You got like a massive lump of granite and you're basically playing crown balls. This is. That's awesome. That's just awesome. I can't have this.
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B
Yeah, I like the one where they cross country ski and then shoot and then ski again. I don't know what that's called, but it's pretty sick.
- [13:53]
C
Anyway, the Finnish army.
- [13:55]
B
Yeah. The Olympics end with his dismal finish, and you couldn't just become a snowboarder influencer then or whatever, you know? He needs to get a real job, so he enrolls at a local college. He has some real career plans, and as a side gig, he takes a job as a bouncer at a club where there's some wild violence. The Vancouver gang scene we've talked about in previous episodes, it's getting wild. You know, shootings, brawls, all that in the nightclubs. The young upstart gangs that had spiraled off from Beanie Joe hall and his rivals like the United Nations, Red Scorpions, Bacon Brothers. It's really kicking off as they fight for control of the drug market, moving pounds of weed and then later, coke. There's also heavy Asian organized crime. The Hell's Angels are involved. It's all that sort of stuff. And Wedding is around all of this. He sees the flash, he sees the money, he sees the game, and he sees that it's kids who kind of grew up like he did, you know, that are sort of like him that are in on it. And in Canada then, well, I mean, Vancouver, there's just so much weed, a lot of coke starting to move through. It's not hard to get involved, and get involved he does. He's already working in the nightlife scene, and I imagine as an Olympian snowboarder and a big dude in Canada, people talk that. So he starts getting the connects that he needs. He's making money. He's buying designer clothes. You know, motorcycles, Beamers, the Ducati, the new condos. He drops out of college. He's actually growing weed at this point, setting up big houses, grow houses. We're talking mid 2000s here. He's making bank. And according to the article on Rolling Stone, he's being watched by the cops at this point and is rumored to run a grow op with 8,000 plants in a big hidden warehouse. But in 2006, that op gets raided with. With an estimated $10 million of product confiscated. Wedding seems to have been pretty careful, though. Enough so that the cops don't really have much on him, and he avoids charges.
- [15:39]
C
10 mil. That has escalated pretty, pretty quickly.
- [15:43]
B
Wow. So, I mean, this is the next episode I'm working on, but apparently, you know, if you have the gumption or the hubris, it's not that hard to set up a grow house where you really make millions and millions of dollars. But I've got a really interesting one that we're cooking up, thanks to a listener who tipped me off on something that'll come in a couple of weeks.
- [16:02]
C
That sounds incredible. Yeah, we should see that up, because you've been talking about that all week, and I really want to know more.
- [16:08]
B
Yeah, yeah. You mean, like, teed up right now? Like, mention it?
- [16:12]
C
Should we do a trailer right now?
- [16:14]
B
No, no, I think we're good. We'll keep a little bit of suspense going, you know. Anyway, Wedding obviously has money issues now, which is what happens when you lose that much product, he does a couple of bad deals, too, so he really needs to hit a lick. And in 2007, he's hanging out with a shady Iranian dude said to have some Hezbollah connections, Hassan Charani, who had been in the game for a while and is reputed to be a money launderer. Heavy. The two of them get involved with a reputed Russian mobster who owns a radio station in Vancouver, and the three of them are setting up a coke deal in L. A for 24 keys, which is not a small amount. I mean, if you're paying LeBron, that's $552,000. Now, the guy on the other side of the deal just happens to be a former KGB agent. Seriously, we're in 2008. Now, the partners, they go to LA, and according to testimony, Wedding seems like he might be in way over his head. When they touch down lax, you know, with their dreams and their cardigans, the former KGB guy is there and he demands the money right away. But, like, of course they don't have it. They just flew in. They tell the KGB guy, look, we'll buy one kilo from you, and if it checks out, we're going to grab the other 23.
- [17:20]
C
Did you just write this show? So you get the IP for an option deal? Because this is getting pretty insane and we're what, like a third through or something?
- [17:27]
B
So the Rolling Stone guy, I believe, sold the IP and they're turning it into, I think, a doc series or a fiction series. So we're, you know, he did all.
- [17:35]
C
The hard work happening to better people.
- [17:38]
B
More. More power to him. Yeah, we're not. I mean, come on, you know. Now, another report says Wedding wasn't stressing, writes Rolling Stone, quote. But Wedding didn't appear nervous. The agent says he acted like he was on vacation. He and Charani slept in, ate breakfast at Denny's, and smoked at hookah lounges late into the night. When they had downtime, Wedding flipped through real estate magazines, mulling over the possibility of buying property in Southern California. There's just one little issue with the whole situation. The former KGB guy, the one selling the keys to them, he's wired up. He's an informant for the feds. And when things are about to proceed to the big purchase, they raid the hotel room, and Ryan Wedding and his partners go down hard.
- [18:18]
C
Wait, so the guy was. He was actually xkgb, but he was also an informant? Or was the whole thing just a ruse?
- [18:24]
B
He's XKGB and informant. I don't know what his background is, but I'd really like to. I couldn't find more on it. Maybe he got busted for being involved or something like that. You know, a lot of these intel guys go into get into the game after, afterwards. So I don't know. But it's, I mean, it's kind of, you know, amazing, amazing little bit part. And you gotta wonder too if this is like the first big coke deal these guys are doing or only the first big deal we know about. But either way, Charani and the Russian, they take pleas 18 and 30 months. Charani actually flips and testifies, but Wedding refuses. He won't cooperate. He ends up going to trial and getting convicted. And it's a mandatory minimum of 10 years. Though he figures he'll probably get transferred to Canada and get it reduced because, you know, there are no laws in Canada. And in May of 2010, he does get it reduced to four years and he's already served two at that point. Business owners. Quick question. When someone hears your phone number, does it stand out or just sound like a bunch of numbers? A bunch of, you know, just some jumble that no one's going to remember? Let's fix that with Ring Boost, the go to service for custom phone numbers that make your business stand out. Whether you're running a small business or scaling something big, the right number makes it ridiculously easy for customers to remember you and actually call. You can get a local number to connect with a regional audience. You can also get a number like 1-800-home- care or 8-33-roofers. There's plenty of options for every industry. You know, if you're a plumber and your number ends in like 4-957-NO-1-NOT going to remember that. But if your number ends in 888 leak, somebody is going to remember that and they're going to call. Here's the best part. Super affordable, super easy. And it can help drive more calls to your business, more trust. So if you're ready to sound like the business people want to call, head over to ringboost.com and use promo code Underworld for an exclusive discount. That's ringboost.com, promo code Underworld. Ringboost. Because voice matters. Tron.
- [20:21]
D
Ares has arrived.
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C
I would like you to meet Ares.
- [20:24]
B
The ultimate AI soldier.
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C
He is biblically strong and supremely intelligent.
- [20:29]
A
You think you're in control of this?
- [20:33]
B
You're not. On October 10th, what are you?
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E
My world is coming to destroy yours.
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B
But I can help you. The war for our World begins in IMAX. TRON. ARES. Rated PG13. May be inappropriate for children under 13.
- [20:48]
D
Only in theaters October 10th.
- [20:49]
B
Get tickets now. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states. In prison, wedding is hitting the gym hard. Getting seriously big and imposing. He's not intimidated. He also has a number of various girlfriends visiting him. One even flashing him in the visiting room. That causes a stir. He eventually gets married to one while in prison in 2011, but we'll get to that later. But yeah, he's kind of like a badass in prison, you know, and the fact that he doesn't talk, I'm sure it goes around and it earns him some more respect. And the two prisons he ends up spending time in in America are in San Diego and Texas. And you can guess what the prisoner makeup is. All sorts of cartel and Mexican gang dudes locked up with him. Lots of new friends and new connections in the drug game. Shortly after he's sent to that prison in Texas, though, he gets deported back to Canada. And because it got reduced and with time served, he's actually released in 2011. Does he straighten up and fly right, Sean, do you think? I bet. I bet you think he does, you sweet little summer child. Do you think he gets it together? He gets a real job and becomes a family man, right? And the episode just ends right here, 20 minutes in. You just. You think that happens, don't you?
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C
Yeah. Yeah.
- [22:20]
B
Yeah. Well, guess what, dummy? He doesn't. The guy loves doing crime and he's kind of good at it, despite that hiccup.
- [22:25]
C
I mean, he's dog shit at snowboarding, so you might as well do this.
- [22:29]
B
Yeah, I mean, career kind of when you get 24th, you're not really burden. Isn't knocking down your door for a sponsorship, you know what I'm saying?
- [22:36]
C
Just might as well just fall down the mountain.
- [22:40]
B
So this is when he starts to make the transition to like a big boy narco, you know? 2013, he's back in Canada. He decides to head to the place where the aspiring big time professional international criminal is going to be able to make some power moves, which is in Montreal. And we've done the Rizzuto family, we've done the Hells Angels and the other bikers. So you guys Know, the Montreal drug game, the organized crime game there is serious. On a seriously international level. I mean, don't get me wrong. Vancouver, where he is originally, it's gnarly with street gangs and some bikers and Asian organized crime as well. But the Montreal Mafia and the Hells Angels are a whole different breed. But this is also around the time the Sinaloa cartel is starting to expand heavy in Canada and get involved on the ground. This actually reminds me of like another sort of really early episode we did. I think it's from the same era on another small town, Canada boy, Jimmy Korniawe, who was pushing a billion dollars of weed in the New York area. I think at one point, the biggest weed dealer in the Northeast by aligning with bikers, street gangs, the mob, even Native American smugglers across the border. It's funny that Wedding also stands accused of having a billion dollar drug ring too. The feds just love those big round numbers.
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C
Yeah, big round, completely made up numbers. I remember that Jimmy guy. It was like the one name that even I had absolutely no idea how to pronounce. And you've just proved me wrong like 10 times pronouncing it.
- [23:59]
B
I think that's it. I think I had a French Canadian sign off on it. But no, I mean, look, both those guys were pushing weight of astronomical proportions. So I think a billion probably isn't too far at off. Do they round up from like 925? Who knows how these numbers are calculated anyway? Street value, wholesale value, whatever. The point is, the guy is a major player. So when Wedding leaves prison originally, he's motivated. He has his plan, he has these contacts. And the Rizzutos themselves are actually weakened. And the Canadian biker gangs too, they're on their back foot after the big biker war and the raids. So there's room to maneuver. And he must have got things going really, really quickly because by 2013, the Canadian authorities are already looking into two men, one with Air Force connections and one with Coast Guard connections. And they're looking to move a thousand keys. And that's when his name comes up. The investigation, it eventually points to Wedding as the ringleader. He's being fingered as working with a guy who has some connections to Chapo. At that point, in fact, Wedding meets with an undercover agent, and they're discussing plans to move weight from the Caribbean into Canada, through sailboats and small fishing boats into Newfoundland and then Montreal, which is not the most original plan, but sort of a classic of the genre. Weddings introduced to the undercover as the man in charge and openly talks about himself as a cocaine importer.
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C
I mean, you gotta hand it to this guy. He's like, I don't know, he's a bit of a dummy at times. Falling up, actually. Falling up. That would be a great name for a biography about snowballed a drug dealer.
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B
That is not. Not bad. Do you ever wonder sometimes, you ever think and say, you know, like, I'm smarter than these guys if I ever just put my mind to it. You ever this thought ever cross your mind?
- [25:33]
C
No, I never think that.
- [25:38]
B
Strangely, on paper, in 2014, wedding is broke, right? We know this because he files for bankruptcy and states for the record, that he is unemployed, but at the same time, he's driving a brand new Ford F350 and living with his wife in a gated community. And oh yeah, he gets married in prison 2011 to an Iranian woman that would later be investigated, though never charged with, you know, some funny money moves and a kidnapping. But as of now, she has not been charged. I think these are all recent charges in the past couple years. Then in 2015, the French Navy intercepts a boat with 200 keys near Antigua in the French Caribbean, which I didn't think the French Navy patrolled over there, but I guess it makes sense that they do. Then the Canadian authorities move in and do some takedowns, arresting a bunch of people with help from the undercover who had infiltrated the ring. Wedding, though, evades arrest, which is a little weird. And this is how Rolling Stone writes it up. Quote, wedding was never arrested in connection with the case. And other than the brief moment he met with an undercover officer in Montreal, he doesn't appear in the reams of investigative files and court documents related to it. Liam Price, the Director General, International Services for the RCMP, which is Canada's equivalent of the FBI, says Wedding has been a fugitive from justice since 2015, but wouldn't say if Canadian police have been actively pursuing him since that time. And later on, a bunch of people involved in that 2015 case are mysteriously gunned down. But I guess, you know, it's not that mysterious in these circumstances. So, technically, Wedding has been a fugitive and wanted since that bus in 2015, but I think even though we are Talking now about $20 million shipments, he was definitely not seen as a big time player like he is now. Now, later on in the 2000 and tens and into the 2000 and twenties is when wedding really gets cooking. The timing is tricky on some of this stuff, but at some point, he looks up, he hooks up With Maruero, his friend Andrew Clark from the Cold Open. He's a close friend from growing up and another kind of, you know, flannel wearing Canadian, also known as the Dictator and El Nino problematico, AKA the problem child, which, you know. Dude, come on. El Nino problematico.
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C
Okay.
- [27:38]
B
It definitely sounds like a nickname that a white Canadian guy gives himself in Mexico. Like I'm just, just kind of saying, you know, like, don't get me wrong, dude does a lot of problematico, but still, like, I can't see like El Mayo and his boys just being like, oh yeah, this guy, this guy's the problem child right here. You know, throwing that nickname out there.
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C
Yeah, that is the guy with the jester beanie. He's like doing magic tricks for girls on Playa del Carmen or something right now. That's just like what you were doing, right?
- [28:02]
B
Kind of close. I was wearing more of a straw hat, you know, but no magic tricks. Previously, the, previously the problem child was an elevator mechanic, which is actually like a really good job if you look into it. Super high paying and a small time landlord. In fact, he must have been either really good at leading a double life or not involved in the drug game until fairly recently because in 2020, Toronto Life magazine interviews him for an article highlighting how landlords are dealing with the first few weeks of the pandemic. Him and his wife apparently have six properties and seven tenants at the time. And Clark cuts his tenants some discounts to help out. The CBC reports on an email he wrote to the magazine. Quote, I want to show our tenants that I care about them, not just about them paying me. We are lucky, I have a good job and we are very frugal. I mean, I don't know, man, I going from nothing to like the right hand man of a billion dollar drug empire ordering hits in like three to four years. I'm gonna go ahead and say that he was probably already involved.
- [28:59]
C
Yeah, I mean, also I feel like half the stories I've looked into lately, like Chinese money launderers, Pacific drug cartels, they are washing like all of their money through Canadian property. Canadian, Canadian listeners tell us what's going on there. It's nuts.
- [29:13]
B
Oh yeah, it's insane, dude. It the, the way it moves through real estate there. And like, there's, like I said, there's no laws in Canada, dude. They can just do what they want. There's that guy who, he actually has a substack called the Bureau, I think, which is like, he's the one who's done all These insane exposes on the like billions and billions of dollars of, of illicit money traveling through Canada. And it's all nuts. And a lot of it's connected to like the cartels, the Chinese Communist Party. It is wild, wild stuff. We'll talk a little bit more about that in, in two weeks actually. Yeah. Weddings operation, according to the feds, is now moving major shipments, hundreds of keys from Southern California into Canada. He's got two Indo Canadian trucking magnets for the transpo. Here's a 2024 federal indictment. Wedding and Clark quote, conspired to ship bulk quantities of cocaine weighing hundreds of kilograms from Southern California to Canada through a Canada based drug transportation network run by Hard Deep Rat 46 of Ontario, Canada and Gurpreet Singh, 31 of Ontario, Canada. The cocaine shipments were transported from Mexico to the Los Angeles area where the cocaine trafficking organization's operatives stored the cocaine in stash houses before delivering it to the transportation network couriers for delivery to Canada using long haul semi trucks. But unfortunately for Wedding, his massive operation is already compromised big time. Compromise because one of his trust lieutenants who has worked with him for a decade or so, flips sometime in 2023 and becomes an informant. A guy by the name of Jonathan Acevedo Garcia. Garcia has been arrested in both the US and Canada. He also does time in the same Texas prison as Wedding. And here he starts wearing a wire. He records a meeting with Wedding in January of 2024 where they discuss moving 350 kilo shipments of Yay. Using that Canadian trucking network we mentioned earlier, who are also an uncle nephew team, which is kind of like the, like the party rock guys. Remember them? Dude, those guys, they had a hell of a summer that year.
- [31:07]
C
Wait, hold on. Lfmao were an uncle and nephew? The guys with a big hair?
- [31:12]
B
First of all, it's amazing that you remember the name of the band. I commend you, dude. But yeah, no, they, they were, they were an uncle nephew team for sure.
- [31:20]
C
Wow. Okay, that makes them even, even lamer.
- [31:22]
B
I don't know, dude. They ruled. Great summer with those guys.
- [31:26]
C
Thank you.
- [31:26]
B
Great summer with those guys. Weddings team. Speaking of lmfao, they're also apparently moving fent and meth.
- [31:33]
C
We should, we should add a legal disclaimer.
- [31:36]
B
Yeah, I don't think, I don't think. I don't have any evidence that points to LMFAO being involved with fentanyl or meth. Just for the record, a month later in February of that year, Clark, the right hand man he tells Garcia, the informant, to meet with the uncle and nephew and negotiate a flat fee for the shipments, which ends up being 220key per shipment and they end up moving about 650keys together. Also remember the cold open, the, you know, the couple that gets killed for mistaken identity that had to do with a shipment that was stolen in Southern California by a trucker. I don't think that network was involved though. There's more trouble for weddings organization in the middle of 2024 in June with a guy that he's wholesaling to, and that's Nahim Bonilla, who's a Montreal bar owner who runs into some trouble in 2019 when his house keeps getting set on fire and there's a shooting outside of it, which means he was probably not just, you know, owning a bar and bartending. He moves to Miami and like any guy who is totally doing things above board, he buys DJ Khaled's mansion and hangs out with Ja Rule. He lists himself again like any upstanding citizen as the CEO of a record label. And he also owns a Miami restaurant slash nightclub, which is, you know, a bigger indicator of a guy being a dirtbag than pretty much anything else is owning a restaurant nightclub in Miami. There is, there is nothing bigger than that.
- [32:53]
C
I mean, why would I want my Yorkshire puds and spotted dick in full view of a pole dancers pole? I don't know. It's disgusting and I know you agree with me on that.
- [33:01]
B
I don't know, dude, if you've ever been to 11, it's kind of. They make it work. They really do.
- [33:06]
C
Take me there. Take me there.
- [33:08]
B
I don't know if I have the willpower or the money to do that anymore. But Bonilla, he breaks rule number 10, which is that he starts selling on consignment, which as we've reminded you many times, is strictly for live men and not for freshmen. Wedding and Co would give him 12 keys, of which he would pay for seven. Right away he'd be fronted five. He messes up though, sometime in the early summer he doesn't have the money to pay Wedding for those five keys. So Wedding, like any good businessman, sends him a message on that encrypted chat they used. It was called 3ma that he's going to have Bonies mom killed unless he pays up for those five keys as soon as possible.
- [33:40]
C
Is that, is that one of those networks the authorities cracked? Like the encroachat stuff?
- [33:45]
B
I don't think so. Because the way that these guys got these messages was because the guy didn't delete them. But it might. It might have been cracked. I don't know specifically. I'm not sure about three months. I do remember encroached that huge thing and those guys were working on a book about it. I think that we've had on or big articles on it, but I don't know what the situation with. With three more was. And it's amazing how many of those there are though, you know?
- [34:09]
C
Yeah, yeah, didn't.
- [34:10]
B
Was. Was the. Was the INCRA one, the one that the feds built themselves?
- [34:14]
C
Yes, I think so. It's like three. Three or four years ago now.
- [34:18]
B
Yeah.
- [34:18]
C
And then they. They fed about the super cartels in Europe and stuff like.
- [34:21]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's just good work, man. Bonia right away sends him 20k in crypto because of course. And then promises to send 20 keys of meth to Canada as a repayment, which he does. And that's how we get this incredible headline. Montreal Landlord accused of Shipping Meth to Repay Fugitive Ex Olympian. Which is, you know, great stuff, but, you know, like anyone managing a bunch of dummies weddings, problems are never ending. So that. That happens in June. In July, Gurpeet Singh, who's the nephew in the Indian trucking duo, he heads to Sinaloa to resolve some sort of debt issue with the Sinaloans. And a few days after arriving in early August, he promptly gets kidnapped in Culiacan, which is, you know, guess it doesn't get resolved. And I kind of feel like that's. That's kind of how the Sinaloans usually deal with. With debt issues. So flying there to kind of figure it out. Not the. Not the wisest thing in the. In the world. Singh's wife, she helps collect 400k to send as a ransom. And then Wedding negotiates his release and he's freed a few days later, which, you know, dude, like, what a. What a headache it is just being a top narco, you know, it's. You're working with these knuckleheads. It's one thing after another. In all due respect, Sean, you got no idea what it's like to be number one. Every decision you make affects every facet of every other thing. It's too much to deal with almost. And in the end, you're completely alone with it all.
- [35:44]
C
Yeah, I mean, I get it, man. You're doing the advertising, emails.
- [35:47]
B
Now. This guy, this guy Singh, is also a mover and a shaker enough to be operating in the US UAE and taking Meetings with the big time Irish mob family the Kinahans, who are global global cartel. Garcia, the informant had also been meeting with Singh in uae. This guy's all over the map, dude, with the wire, which is crazy. According to the cbc, US Prosecutors say he had, quote, extensive organized crime connections within Dubai, including relationships with members of the Kinahan gang, which is a well known violent organized crime group operating throughout the world. Singh, 31, is also alleged to have been involved in a scheme to ship stolen high end cars to Dubai through the Port of Montreal. It's just kind of wild, huh? You know, like the interconnectedness of it all. Just like what a little crew that they put together, you know, they're like the. They're like the Avengers except they keep messing up. And also very diverse, you know, Canadian crime groups. They're like the community college brochures.
- [36:42]
D
Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast with Benjamin Boster. If you're tired of sleepless nights, you'll love the I Can't Sleep podcast. I help quiet your mind by reading random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. Each episode provides enough interesting content to hold your attention and then your mind lets you drift off. Find it wherever you get your podcasts. That's I Can't Sleep with Benjamin Boster.
- [37:33]
F
Have you ever wondered why we call French fries French fries? Or why something is the greatest thing since sliced bread? There are answers to those questions. Everything Everywhere Daily is a podcast for curious people who want to learn more about the world around them. Every day you'll learn something new about things you never knew you didn't know. Subjects include history, science, geography, mathematics, and culture. If you're a curious person and want to learn more about the world you live in, just subscribe to Everything Everywhere Daily. Wherever you cast your pod.
- [38:03]
B
When you listen to Nobody Listens to.
- [38:05]
F
Paula Poundstone, the comedy podcast, you learn stuff.
- [38:08]
A
I've been learning to throw a boot.
- [38:10]
B
Boomerang because this is the kind of.
- [38:11]
A
Thing that really gets the listeners engaged.
- [38:13]
B
You know, interviews with people who will make you smarter. Does the amount that you learn protect you from cognitive decline? Paula, don't catch that. Can't people just listen to the show? Can't they just enjoy a delightful treehouse full of information? And I think I'm bleeding. Join us and be a nobody. 2024 as well is when those hits from the cold opening are happening. And Wedding and Clark are just paying him in to take people out. You've got that couple killed after they were Mistaken for a truck driver who ripped off a shipment. You have the guy in Niagara Falls. Another guy in Brampton, you know is killed over a drug debt. That's in Ontario. And as we mentioned earlier, there's like a half dozen more people on Wedding and Clark's hit list. But with the help of that informant wearing a wire, Garcia, and the phone from our friend Mr. Perfect in the cold open, things get tight around the Wedding operation. There's massive raids on his network in October. The feds dub it Operation Giant Slalom after Weddings, Olympic racing sport, probably. You know, all the good snow references were taken. 14 guys overall are targeting Colombia, the States, Canada, and Mexico. The truck guys go down. Bonilla gets bagged at his DJ Khaled mansion in Miami. In Mexico, there's a daring daytime raid by the Mexican marines, who are no joke at a restaurant in Guadalajara, Jalisco, where they managed to arrest Weddings right hand man, Clark. Remember that story from February a few months ago about the dozens, I think, 30 or so cartel guys being extradited from Mexico to the US in like, an unprecedented move? One of them is the cartel guy I was supposed to embed with a few years ago, El Durango. And one of them is this guy Clark, which gives you an idea of how big they actually were.
- [39:49]
C
Wow.
- [39:49]
B
And another strange thing. He gets let out of bail in Mexico for a minute. Nobody knows why, though. I mean, come on. We know why. But then he's recaptured with there's no details forthcoming on that, but with we kind of know what they are. Here's the FBI statement on those initial raids. Quote, Wedding went from treading powder on the slopes at the Olympics to distributing powder cocaine on the streets of US Cities and in his native Canada, which I bet. I bet the guy who came up with that is, like, very proud of himself for that one. And here's another quote. The former Canadian snowboarder unleashed an avalanche of death and destruction here and abroad. How long do you think these guys come to? Like, how long do they take to come up with this stuff? It's like, so New York Post headline levels, except kind of, kind of worse.
- [40:30]
C
It's kind of, like heartening to see folks in the public eye clearly want to be failed journalists instead of wannabe, instead of journalists being just wannabe, failed everything else. I don't know. There might be something aspirational to this job after all.
- [40:44]
B
Is there? Wedding, of course, is still a fugitive right now, but he certainly makes for good headlines like former Olympian wanted for running transnational drug enterprise and ordering several Murders added to the FBI's list of 10 most wanted, which. Yeah, he makes the 10 most wanted list, which has got to feel like kind of an accomplishment, I guess, if you're in that world. Four murder charges in the charges, eight counts total, which include conspiracies to traffic cocaine and murder and attempted murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise. Wedding is believed to be hiding out of Mexico, but also they say it could potentially be in Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, or even the US And Canada, though I highly doubt that. They also report that he worked super closely with the Sinaloa cartel and is effectively under their protection, which is, according to media, which is probably fed that through law enforcement. But Sinaloa has kind of always been like a federation, you know? And right now, it's in the middle of a civil war with Los Chapitos fighting the Maitos. I think it's a third faction as well, which we've covered extensively. So not sure which faction he's riding with or now that he's been handicapped somewhat, if they even care about him that much. This past January, couple months ago, that informant that wore the wire, Jonathan Acevedo Garcia, is eating lunch at a restaurant in a shopping center in Medellin, Colombia. Which? Brother, if you are a witness in a federal drug trafficking case, why are you in Colombia and Medellin, of all places? Look, don't get me wrong. I get it, man. Paisa's like, you know, but you gotta be smarter. And that goes for all of you. Just be smarter. At 2:30pm broad daylight, a guy with a pistol equipped with a silencer fires five shots into him and kills the guy. Killer escapes on a motorcycle driven by a partner. They dump it and hop in a truck and escape. Now, Garcia wasn't publicly known as an informant then, so Wedding must have gotten tipped off or just had his suspicions. Either. Either way, he clearly is still not messing around. And now the key witness is dead. Though I'm assuming they have a pretty airtight case already. Either way, major bungling by the feds for letting this guy get gunned down. And that's where we leave off. Ryan wedding. $10 million bounty on his head for info leading to his capture, which is kind of wild when you think about it. Still on the run, but for how long?
- [42:53]
C
I guess it's all been downhill since Salt Lake, you could say.
- [42:56]
B
Nice.
- [42:58]
C
Yeah. That's the level, right? That's the level. I finally found it all the way in.
- [43:02]
B
Yeah, that was pretty good.
- [43:03]
C
I don't know, man. Do I have to. I'm really worried about these eyeballs.
- [43:06]
B
Dude. You can't take those guys seriously, man. You know, they, they, they. A lot of people have talked about your jawline and how handsome you are. Don't. Don't sweat it, man. You look. You look great. And. Yeah, that's. That's the episode. As always, if you work at Rockstar Games, give us a call. Help us figure something out, because we're not desperate. No, we're. We're getting there. We're getting there.
- [43:30]
C
It Sam.
- [44:43]
E
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