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A Toronto-area lawyer — who allegedly counselled fugitive Ryan Wedding to murder an FBI witness — is “not safe out there” and risks being assassinated if he’s released on bail, an Ontario court has been told.
Deepak Paradkar appeared from the prisoner box in a downtown Toronto court Friday for the third straight day of a bail hearing. Paradkar, 62, was arrested last month and faces extradition to the U.S. amid allegations he played a key role in Wedding’s purported murderous drug-trafficking empire.
Heather Graham, a lawyer for the Department of Justice Canada told the court that as long as Paradkar faces legal proceedings, he remains “a huge liability” to Wedding’s organization, which has been linked to dozens of murders.
Wedding’s network “is highly motivated” to prevent Paradkar from standing trial in California, Graham told Ontario Superior Court Justice Peter Bawden. “There’s no telling what would happen to him, his family, anyone connected to him.”
Authorities allege lawyer had role in crime network
According to U.S. prosecutors, Wedding and his second-in-command, Andrew Clark, gave Paradkar expensive watches and “cash drops” to play a multi-faceted role in their network.
Authorities allege Paradkar exploited his title as lawyer to gather intelligence on behalf of Wedding and also helped identify trucking networks to smuggle cocaine from Los Angeles to Canada.
What’s more, U.S. authorities accuse Paradkar of advising Wedding to have a former ally-turned-FBI informant killed, to ensure the criminal case against Wedding would fall apart. It didn’t.
Thunder Bay, Ont.-born fugitive Ryan Wedding is seen in an undated picture. The U.S. State Department is offering a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to his capture. (U.S. Embassy Mexico)
According to a U.S. indictment unsealed last month, Paradkar went by aliases such as “cocaine lawyer” and “Descartes.” He faces a mandatory life sentence if convicted on charges including conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to retaliate against a witness.
Paradkar’s legal licence was suspended last week. He has denied wrongdoing.
Wedding, who competed for Canada as a snowboarder at the 2002 Olympic Games, is listed as one of the FBI’s 10 most-wanted fugitives. He’s suspected of hiding out in Mexico while running a transnational criminal enterprise linked to the notorious Sinaloa cartel.
According to partial transcripts of encrypted chats included in a recent court filing, Clark told Wedding “Deepak on it,” after a seizure of 521 kilograms of the network’s cocaine on the road in Arkansas in October 2024.
Clark purportedly told Wedding that an investigation was underway, and they were planning to “shut the driver down” and “kill everyone involved.”
Ryan Wedding’s alleged second-in-command, fellow Canadian Andrew Clark, centre, was arrested in Mexico in October 2024 in an operation involving Interpol and the Mexican navy. (Omar García Harfuch/Facebook)
In court on Friday, Graham, the Justice Department lawyer, said Paradkar would be doing “everything he can to assure the organization that he’s not co-operating,” following the January murder of the FBI witness.
Montreal-born Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia was shot in a Medellin, Colombia, restaurant after Wedding came to view him as a “rat” and allegedly placed a $5-million US bounty on his head.
Bawden said based on what Graham said, “if [Paradkar] is to get bail, his first priority has got to be staying alive.”
Graham agreed, insisting Paradkar “is not safe out there,” and neither are his proposed sureties, including his wife.
“All of these people are at risk,” she said.
WATCH | $13-million Mercedes supercar linked to Ryan Wedding seized by the FBI:
We found out who bought a $13M Mercedes now linked to fugitive Ryan Wedding
As the FBI continues its hunt for Ryan Wedding, the former Olympian turned alleged cocaine kingpin, CBC News has learned how he may have used a $13-million US Mercedes as part of a global money laundering scheme.Paradkar poses flight risk: U.S. prosecutors
In a letter filed in Ontario Superior Court amid Paradkar’s bail proceedings and reviewed by CBC News, U.S. prosecutors allege he poses a “substantial” flight risk.
“Written communications located during this investigation revealed that Paradkar himself is connected to persons identified by law enforcement authorities as enforcers or hitmen for the [transnational criminal organization],” L.A.-based assistant U.S. attorneys Lyndsi Allsop and Kenneth Carbajal wrote.
“Paradkar’s association with and membership in a billion-dollar transnational drug organization makes him a danger to the community,” they said.
Defence lawyer Ravin Pillay, who is representing Paradkar, told the court the letter is not backed up by evidence and is “not credible or trustworthy.”
Bawden is expected to render his decision to grant or deny Paradkar bail on Dec. 23.
He repeatedly questioned whether at Paradkar’s age, he truly represents a flight risk. However, Bawden said “the most important aspects of the case are certainly irrefutable.”