A crime blog, which allegedly orchestrated a real-life crime, has led to the arrest of Gursewak Singh Bal, the 33-year-old co-founder of The Dirty Newz, based in Mississauga, Ontario. He was among seven Canadians detained on November 19, 2025, as part of the FBI's Operation Giant Slalom. This investigation focuses on Ryan Wedding, a former Olympic athlete suspected of being a cocaine kingpin.
Bal stands accused of facilitating the assassination of a federal witness, Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia, who was preparing to testify against Wedding in a narcotics prosecution. The FBI has seized The Dirty Newz website as part of their ongoing investigation.
Acebedo-Garcia was murdered in January 2025 at a restaurant in Medellín, Colombia. The alleged involvement of Bal raises questions about how an individual engaged in crime blogging could become intertwined with high-profile figures in organized crime, federal informants, and contract killers.
According to a federal indictment revealed on the day of Bal’s arrest, members of Wedding’s organization allegedly paid Bal to publish Acebedo-Garcia’s photographs on his website. This was intended to help the assassins identify and locate him before he could provide testimony against their alleged leader. Specifically, Allistair Chapman, another Canadian implicated in the case, reportedly paid Bal $10,000 in October 2024 to cease posting about Wedding and his associate, Ryan Clark, while instead focusing on Acebedo-Garcia to facilitate his tracking and killing.
The indictment details how Bal even utilized social media to target the witness. He posted on Instagram a photo of Acebedo-Garcia on November 5, 2024, with a caption that read, “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.”
After Acebedo-Garcia was fatally shot, the suspects reportedly took photographs of his body. Three individuals connected to this murder are still at large. Following the assassination, Wedding allegedly informed Clark of the completed job through an encrypted messaging application, sending a photo of the corpse as verification.
In a shocking display, Bal is said to have celebrated the assassination online. On January 31, 2025, he posted on Instagram detailing the crime scene with a caption that stated, “[Victim A] down… BOOM! Headshot,” according to the indictment.
Bal and his Canadian co-defendants are currently facing multiple charges, including conspiracy to commit murder as part of a continuing criminal enterprise and conspiracy to distribute and possess cocaine.
The intertwining of crime blogging and organized crime demonstrates a troubling intersection of media influence and criminal activity. Bal’s case illustrates how social media and digital platforms can be exploited for illicit purposes, ultimately leading to tragic consequences.
