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The 43-year-old is considered “very dangerous,� the FBI says. He is wanted by the federal agency for allegedly running a cross-border drug trafficking ring that routinely smuggled enormous quantities of cocaine into Canada and orchestrated multiple murders.

U.S. authorities unsealed an indictment last year accusing Wedding and his second-in-command, Canadian Andrew Clark, of leading the billion-dollar criminal enterprise that routinely trafficked large quantities of drugs from Colombia through Mexico and Southern California into Canada. Investigators have publicly linked the pair to four killings in Ontario — including the GTA slayings of an Indian couple mistakenly targeted over a stolen drug shipment — but have suggested there are more across North America.

Both men were living in Mexico, where Clark was apprehended last year. The 34-year-old was brought into U.S. custody and stands trial in California next year alongside several other co-defendants in the case. 

Wedding is believed to be hiding in Mexico under the protection of cartel members, FBI spokesperson Laura Eimiller told the Star in a statement. The agency just launched a social media campaign in that country to generate new leads and encourage the public to keep an eye out for Wedding. The Spanish-language ads show him on the FBI’s Most Wanted poster reminding people what’s being offered: $10 million for information leading to Wedding’s arrest.

“There is some evidence that he may have undergone plastic surgery, as many international fugitives with financial resources are known to do, and so we urge the public to be flexible when considering his appearance,� Eimiller said. The latest confirmed photograph of Wedding was captured by the FBI sometime in 2024. It shows the hulking six-foot-three, 240-pound former athlete with short brown hair, a thick brown moustache and slight facial hair under his chin.

Eimiller said investigators believe Wedding is “sophisticated� in his ability to evade authorities and has “exploited his relationships with the cartels� to elude detection. 

‘His adversaries are in danger’ 

Prosecutors have previously warned that Wedding continues to traffic drugs and has access to “a network of hit men.â€� FBI officials have not confirmed those details but in their statement said there “is a distinct possibilityâ€� he continues to “conduct criminal activityâ€� and that “his adversaries are in danger.”

One of those enemies was Montreal-born Jonathan Acebedo Garcia, a key witness in the investigation. As the Star first reported in February, the 42-year-old was killed in an apparent assassination in Medellin, Colombia, on Jan. 31. 

The co-operating witness, identified by the Star as Garcia, met Wedding in prison in 2011 while they were both serving time for drug-related offences. They worked together for more than a decade before Garcia turned on Wedding and agreed in 2023 to help authorities dismantle the alleged drug trafficking operation, according to court documents. 

Why Garcia decided to cross him is unclear in the records, but the evidence he gathered — from recorded conversations to encrypted text messages — would give investigators a front-row seat to the inner workings of Wedding’s alleged enterprise. Eventually, 14 of 16 people named in the indictment were charged.

Concealing his identity

The FBI previously suggested Wedding likely altered his appearance, but until now had not indicated there was anything to prove so. The latest image released by the agency shows him looking every bit the part of a conspicuously wealthy ex-athlete, wearing what appears to be a Los Angeles Dodgers cap and a $1,360 Louis Vuitton cotton T-shirt. 

What Wedding looks like now is unknown. The FBI has not revealed what exactly he had modified, nor what their evidence entails. 

But just how effective is plastic surgery for fugitives?

To most, it’s inaccessible. Plastic surgery requires connections and money, and in most cases, will take place outside the country from which that person is running, said Max Langlois, executive director of the Bolo Program, which encourages the public to be on the lookout for Canada’s most wanted fugitives.

“Does it increase their chances to further evade arrest? I would think so,� he said.

While plastic surgery happens in a “very limited number of cases,� Langlois said fugitives often employ other tactics to hide. It could be something as simple as cutting their hair, shaving their beard or changing their wardrobe, he said. 

Ten years earlier, Wedding’s look was notably different in a FBI-released photo, when he had a dense brown beard, long coiled hair and a receding hairline.

How fugitives behave matters, too. 

Langlois said there’s a number of measures they might take to conceal their identity: hang out with different people, ditch their devices and start from scratch, switch bank accounts and sever ties with family members.

“It requires a lot of consistency and skills, to some extent,� he said. “You got to play your game in a very careful way.�

Authorities rely on headshots and descriptions to inform the public about individuals on the run. Anything embedded on that person’s body — whether it be a scar, tattoo or birthmark — is a marker that would help identify them, Langlois said. 

While removing or altering those things makes detection significantly more difficult, some experts have said that facial recognition technology makes it very difficult for fugitives to hide.

On the run for 10 years

Wedding has been on the run since at least 2015, when he was named in a two-year RCMP investigation that uncovered several plots to import cocaine into Canada. The probe, code-named Operation Harrington, resulted in charges against more than a dozen people alleged to have ties to Colombian and Mexican drug cartels — including Wedding, who was living in Montreal at the time. He is believed to have fled Canada before police could arrest him. 

The Harrington documents paint Wedding as a shadowy character and senior partner in the cocaine conspiracy, acting as an overseer under a system of anonymous code names on encrypted chats, including Goldstandard. In one interaction, co-conspirator Philipos Kollaros introduced Wedding “as the man in charge� to an undercover police officer posing as a drug importer. 

Kollaros, who entered a guilty plea in the operation, was shot dead in Montreal in 2018, shortly after completing his sentence. 

He wasn’t the only Wedding associate to have been murdered in Canada.

Former GTA resident Jahanbakhsh “John� Meshkati was killed in a targeted shooting in B.C. in 2014 — after undercover agents infiltrated his criminal network. A by the International Coalition Against Illicit Economies suggests Meshkati was a big player in Wedding’s network. 

To this day, the full extent of Wedding’s role in Harrington is unclear. The documents don’t detail who, if anyone, he was in contact with in Mexico. And if he was already a cartel boss at this time, that fact was not proven in the investigation.

From athlete to alleged drug kingpin

Wedding was born into a family of skiers in Thunder Bay, Ont., and moved to Coquitlam, B.C., in 1991. He was a member of Canada’s national snowboard team from 1995 up until the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.

In its current probe, the FBI paints Wedding as a cartel boss who will stop at nothing to get his way. He and Clark are accused of ordering the Nov. 20, 2023, shooting that killed Jagtar Singh Sidhu, 57, and Harbhajan Kaur Sidhu, 55, at their family’s rental home in Caledon. Their daughter, Jaspreet Kaur Sidhu, was shot 13 times but survived.

Investigators later revealed the triple shooting was a case of mistaken identity. The suspects are still at large.

Hiding in Mexico

While authorities have offered few details about Wedding’s whereabouts, the FBI’s latest social media campaign suggests they are concentrating their search efforts in Mexico.

The ads are expected to run for a month and have already generated “a lot of engagement,� Eimiller said.

If this were the ‘80s, you’d resort to billboards and flyers to promote your campaign. Now, the most effective tool is social media, said Langlois.

“It’s low-hanging fruit,” he said.

Langlois said he is aware of “a number of cases� where there was a correlation between a social media campaign and the right tip that led to an arrest.

Whether that happens with Wedding remains to be seen.