A crime blog played a role in orchestrating a murder. Website views turned into a deadly outcome.
These are some of the serious charges facing Gursewak Singh Bal, 33, co-founder of The Dirty Newz website from Mississauga. He was one of seven Canadians arrested on Wednesday during the FBI’s Operation Giant Slalom, an ongoing investigation into former Olympic athlete and alleged cocaine trafficker Ryan Wedding.
Bal is accused of assisting hitmen in locating and killing a federal witness who was scheduled to testify against Wedding in a narcotics case.
The FBI has since taken control of The Dirty Newz website.
The victim, named Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia in court documents, was shot dead at a restaurant in Medellín, Colombia, in January 2025.
How did an Ontario crime blogger get entangled with alleged drug lords, federal informants, and hired killers?
A federal indictment released on Wednesday claims that Bal received payment from members of Wedding’s organization to publish photos of Acebedo-Garcia on his site. This was done so associates could identify him, track him down, and ultimately kill him before he could testify against their leader.
The indictment states that another Canadian involved in the case, Allistair Chapman, 33, from Calgary, paid Bal $10,000 in October 2024 to stop writing about Wedding and his right-hand man Ryan Clark. Instead, he was instructed to write about Acebedo-Garcia “so that enterprise members and associates could locate and kill” him.
According to the indictment documents, he also began posting about the so-called informant on social media.
Authorities say he shared a photo of Acebedo-Garcia on his Instagram on November 5, 2024. He included the caption:
“This guy single handedly (rat emoji) out one of the strongest underworld networks that this (world emoji) has seen Good chance he’ll never be found again.”
As part of the developments in Operation Giant Slalom announced today, Gursewak Singh Bal from Mississauga was arrested. Bal co-founded “The Dirty News,” which law enforcement seized under federal… pic. twitter. com/YY0TOZo4Ix
– FBI Los Angeles (@FBILos Angeles) November 19, 2025
Acebedo-Garcia was eventually killed; suspects even photographed his body afterward.
Three suspects involved remain at large.
Following the assassination in Medellín, U. S. Justice Department officials say Wedding notified Clark through an encrypted messaging app that the job had been completed by sending a picture of the corpse as proof.
Upon hearing this news, Bal allegedly celebrated online.
“On January 31, 2025,” via Instagram “defendant BAL posted a story depicting a photograph of the Restaurant and the bottom part of a body lying on the ground,” along with captions reading: “[Victim A] down…” and “BOOM! Headshot,” according to the indictment.
Bal and his Canadian co-defendants face multiple charges including conspiracy to commit murder related to an ongoing criminal operation as well as conspiracy to distribute cocaine with intent to possess it for distribution.
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