Seven Canadians are now facing extradition to the United States after U.S. authorities unveiled sweeping allegations tying them to the sprawling, intercontinental drug-smuggling network allegedly run by former Olympic snowboarder and FBI most-wanted fugitive Ryan Wedding. U.S. officials have compared Wedding to a “modern-day Pablo Escobar,” describing an operation that stretched across North America and allegedly relied on lawyers, bloggers, jewelers, and even musicians to maintain its reach.
Wedding, believed to be hiding in Mexico, is accused of orchestrating a vast cocaine pipeline and ordering the murder of a federal witness who threatened to expose the network. RCMP officers arrested the Canadian suspects this week in coordinated raids across several provinces. None of the allegations have been tested in Canadian courts, which will ultimately decide whether the accused will be surrendered to U.S. authorities.
Among the most prominent names is Deepak Balwant Paradkar, a long-time Ontario criminal lawyer whom U.S. prosecutors allege advised Wedding that killing a federal witness could collapse the indictment against them. “That lawyer is now in custody and he’ll be extradited,” said Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California. The U.S. Treasury Department further alleges Paradkar introduced Wedding to traffickers, allowed him to eavesdrop on privileged calls, and received payment in the form of luxury watches and fees. The indictment notes Paradkar once used the online alias “cocaine_lawyer,” a reference that resurfaced along with a 2017 Toronto Sun article highlighting his flashy social-media posts about drug cases, designer shoes, and his yellow Lamborghini.
Another Canadian accused is 37-year-old Toronto jeweller and poker player Rolan Sokolovski, described by U.S. authorities as a key money launderer for the organization. Prosecutors allege he moved millions in drug proceeds through cryptocurrency and his downtown Toronto storefront, Diamond Tsar. Court documents claim Sokolovski also crafted a jewel-encrusted necklace intended as payment for a murder.
That necklace was allegedly delivered to Atna Ohna, a 40-year-old man from Laval, Que., described in the indictment as a hired “sicario,” or contract killer. Ohna is accused of helping facilitate the murder of the federal witness by passing along identifying information to Wedding. Prosecutors allege Ohna was rewarded with roughly $150,000 and 30 kilograms of cocaine.
Another accused, Edwin Basora-Hernandez, a 31-year-old Montreal Reggaeton artist known as Ed Winter, allegedly sold the victim’s phone number and email address to the group for up to $1,000. The nonprofit Frikiton lists Winter as a performer with hundreds of thousands of Spotify streams.
U.S. authorities also say the Canadian website The Dirty News—co-founded by 31-year-old Mississauga resident Gursewak Singh Bal—became part of the murder conspiracy. Prosecutors allege Bal accepted $10,000 to refrain from posting about Wedding and instead published a photo of the witness, calling him a “snitch” and implying he would never be found. The site was seized by U.S. authorities on Tuesday. CBC News previously reported that the site’s X account had posted a video captioned, “Ryan James Wedding a.k.a. SnowBoarder pays his TPs really well,” referring to Canadian drug transportation networks.
In Alberta, two more men face charges. Allistair Chapman, 33, of Calgary, is accused of paying Bal to manipulate posts on The Dirty News and supplying the photo of the witness who was later killed. Ahmad Nabil Zitoun, 35, of Edmonton, allegedly traveled to Colombia and Saudi Arabia in an effort to locate the witness prior to the murder.
Wedding himself remains at large, and U.S. officials have increased the reward for information leading to his capture from US$10 million to US$15 million, reflecting the unprecedented scale of the investigation. The newly filed charges represent another major step in a case described by U.S. authorities as one of the most complex cross-border drug-trafficking prosecutions in recent years.