U.S. raises bounty for alleged Canadian drug lord Ryan Wedding

The manhunt for the former Canadian Olympian turned alleged international drug dealer Ryan Wedding continues with a raised reward for his capture.

Seven Canadians connected to him have been arrested for extradition to the U.S.

As the RCMP and U.S. authorities push harder to bring Wedding into custody.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi says he is currently the largest distributor of cocaine in Canada.

Bondi says he’s bringing 60 metric tons of cocaine into the U.S. every year while announcing a bigger reward for his capture to $15million U.S. – up from $10million and more charges against alleged global drug lord Ryan Wedding.

Michael Duheme, RCMP commissioner says “fugitive Ryan Wedding remains one of the top threats to Canadian public safety.”

READ MORE: “Second in command” to Canadian drug lord pleads not guilty to all charges

Duheme announced seven arrests of Canadians he says are tied to Wedding’s organization, through operations by the Mounties and RCMP Tuesday, in Quebec, Ontario and Alberta.

One is Wedding’s alleged attorney – Deepak Paradkar of Brampton and Pickering Ont. who law enforcement said introduced Wedding to the traffickers who transported the drugs.

Bill Essayli, First Assistant U.S. Attorney says assisting international drug trafficking plays on how to evade law enforcement and to murder witnesses

U.S. law enforcement are also shutting down the Canadian website they say Wedding used to post photos of a witness to locate him and who was later gunned down in Colombia.

The new U.S indictment alleges the former snowboarder from the 2002 winter games conspired to bring bulk amounts of cocaine into the United States and Canada.

It also claims Wedding – who is on the FBIs top ten most wanted list — was involved in violence and murder to maintain his drug ring.

Kash Patel, FBI Director called Wedding a modern day iteration of Pablo Escobar.

“He is a modern day iteration of El Chapo Guzman,” Patel said. He is responsible for engineering a narco-trafficking and narco-terrorism program that we have not seen in a long time.”

READ MORE: Former Canadian Olympic athlete added to FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives list