kingpin

Nov. 23 (UPI) — Authorities in Canada have arrested an associate of a former Olympian snowboarder accused by the United States of being a drug kingpin on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.

The FBI confirmed on X that Rasheed Pascua Hossain, 32, was arrested in Vancouver by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canada’s federal law enforcement agency. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that Hossain was detained Friday.

On Wednesday, U.S. federal authorities announced at a press conference that they were intensifying their manhunt for Ryan Wedding, 44, whom FBI Director Kash Patel called a “modern-day iteration” of Pablo Escobar and Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, two of the most infamous drug cartel leaders.

Wedding is believed to be in Mexico, receiving protection from the Sinaloa Cartel.

He is accused of flooding U.S. streets with drugs and of being Canada’s main distributor of cocaine.

An indictment unsealed Wednesday alleged that he was involved in orchestrating the execution of a witness working with authorities to secure his extradition to the United States. Wedding was first charged in the United States in October 2024. He is facing an array of charges that include murder and drug trafficking.

More than 35 people have been indicted in Operation Giant Slalom, with the announcement that 10 people, seven in Canada and three from Colombia, have been arrested made public on Wednesday.

An FBI 10 most wanted poster is displayed during a press conference with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel on Wednesday. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI

Federal prosecutors said Hossain was one of four people, including Wedding, who law enforcement was continuing to search for.

Hossain was charged in the indictment announced Wednesday over his alleged involvement in money laundering for what U.S. federal authorities have called the Wedding Criminal Enterprise.

He has been charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine, conspiracy to export cocaine and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.

A $15 million reward is being offered by the United States for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Wedding.

Noah Zaitar allegedly ran a drug empire, producing and exporting narcotics, including the synthetic stimulant captagon.

The Lebanese army has detained the country’s most infamous drug lord, two years after he was sanctioned by the United States over suspected links to narcotics rings in Syria.

In a post on X on Thursday, the Lebanese army confirmed they had arrested a citizen with the initials “NZ”, and three security sources confirmed to the Reuters news agency that the individual in question was the fugitive Noah Zaitar.

Following a “series of precise security surveillance and monitoring operations”, security forces arrested Zaitar in an ambush in the city of Baalbek in Lebanon’s eastern Baalbek-Hermel governorate, the Lebanese military said.

“The detainee is one of the most dangerous wanted individuals, pursuant to a large number of arrest warrants, for crimes of forming gangs operating across numerous Lebanese regions in drug and arms trafficking, manufacturing narcotic substances, and robbery and theft by force of arms,” the military said.

“He had also previously opened fire on army elements and facilities, as well as citizens’ homes, and kidnapped individuals for financial ransom. The investigation has commenced with the detainee under the supervision of the competent judiciary,” it added.

Zaitar allegedly ran a drug empire in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley area near the Syrian border, producing and exporting drugs including the synthetic stimulant captagon.

A military tribunal sentenced Zaitar – who had evaded arrest for years while living in his home village of Kneisseh surrounded by armed supporters – to death in 2024 for killing a Lebanese soldier.

He was also named in US Department of State sanctions in 2023 against the regime of ousted Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad and individuals connected to his lucrative captagon trafficking network.

The State Department said Zaitar was a “known arms dealer and drug smuggler”, with close ties to the Fourth Division of the Syrian Arab Army – an elite unit once central to the captagon trade.

It also said Zaitar was wanted for having “materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services” to the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

The arrest of Zaitar comes amid an ongoing crackdown by Lebanese authorities against drug traffickers in the country.

In a separate post on X on Wednesday, the Lebanese military said two soldiers, named as Bilal al-Baradi and Ali Haidar, were killed in clashes in Baalbek on Tuesday as they pursued fugitive narcotics suspects.

تنعى قيادة الجيش ـــ مديرية التوجيه، المعاون الأول الشهيد بلال البرادعي والعريف الشهيد علي حيدر اللذين استشهدا بتاریخ ١٨ /١١ /٢٠٢٥ نتيجة اشتباكات مع مطلوبين أثناء تنفيذ مديرية المخابرات سلسلة عمليات دهم بمؤازرة وحدة من الجيش في منطقة الشراونة – بعلبك.
وفي ما يلي نبذة عن حياة كل… pic.twitter.com/aIw9IjiuYi

— الجيش اللبناني (@LebarmyOfficial) November 18, 2025

Translation: The Army Command – Directorate of Orientation, mourns the First Assistant Martyr Bilal al-Baradi and Corporal Martyr Ali Haidar, who were martyred on 18/11/2025 as a result of clashes with wanted individuals during the execution by the Intelligence Directorate of a series of raids backed by an Army unit in the al-Sharawna area – Baalbek. 

The military said that another Lebanese citizen, referred to by the initials HAJ – and named by the local news outlet Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International as Hassouneh Jaafar – was shot and killed after opening fire on Lebanese security forces during that raid.

The fugitive was wanted in connection with the murder of four soldiers, as well as kidnapping, robbery, armed robbery and drug trafficking.

Lebanese authorities also arrested two other men – referred to only as FM and GQ – for “promoting drugs” and “possessing a quantity of weapons and military ammunition” in the Akkar governorate, north of Baalbek, close to the Syrian border.