In a nationwide crackdown on the cocaine trafficking ring run by Ryan James Wedding, a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder, 10 people including two Indian-origin men have been arrested in connection with the network and face extradition to the US.
Wedding, who is one of the FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives, allegedly offered a multi-million dollar bounty on an FBI witness who was shot dead in Colombia in January this year. The witness was set to testify against him in another case. Wedding is said to be hiding in Mexico with the help of the Sinaloa Cartel, which helped him move tonnes of cocaine from Colombia into North America via Mexico.
The Indian-origin duo was identified as Deepak Paradkar, a defence lawyer from Brampton, and Gursewak Bal, 31, a crime blogger from Mississauga. The arrest is based on a nine-count federal grand jury indictment from the US government.
Who is Deepak Paradkar?
Deepak Balwant Paradkar, aged 62, is a defence lawyer from Thornhill, Ontario. He allegedly went beyond his role as a criminal barrister and advised Wedding and his aide Andrew Clark to murder an FBI witness. He said without the witness, the case would be dismissed and he can “avoid extradition from Mexico”, according to the US indictment.
“Paradkar violated the trust of his clients and the ethics of his profession by allowing Wedding and his associates to eavesdrop on privileged communications between Paradkar and his other clients, several of whom Wedding wished to murder,” reads a release by the DOJ.
Who is Gursewak Bal?
Gursewak Singh Bal, 31, hails from Mississauga, Ontario. The US Justice Department described him as a would-be gangland news website operator. He is accused of assisting Wedding’s trafficking ring through blogs on The Dirty News, which has been seized by the authorities.
He allegedly accepted 10,000 Canadian dollars to post a photograph of the Colombian witness and his wife in order to help Wedding locate them.
Other arrested in the case include Atna Ohna, 40, of Laval, Quebec; Allistair Chapman, 33, of Calgary, Alberta; Ahmad Nabil Zitoun, 35, of Edmonton, Alberta; Carmen Yelinet Valoyes Florez, 47, of Bogotá, Colombia; Yulieth Katherine Tejada, 36, of Florida, the USA, who is legal permanent resident from Colombia; Edwin Basora-Hernandez, 31, of Montréal; Wilson Riascos, 45, of Cali, Colombia; and Rolan Sokolovski, 37, of Toronto.
They were arrested during Operation Giant Slalom, which involved teams from the FBI, the US Treasury, Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Colombian National Police. Slalom is a reference to Wedding’s snowboarding history.
