{"id":837830,"date":"2026-07-31T09:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T09:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/837830\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T09:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T09:08:14","slug":"man-linked-to-toronto-police-corruption-probe-has-global-drug-trafficking-ties-court-documents-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/837830\/","title":{"rendered":"Man linked to Toronto police corruption probe has global drug-trafficking ties, court documents say"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Toronto man investigated for potential involvement in a murder plot targeting a senior jail officer \u2014 and facing extradition to the U.S. on drug conspiracy charges linked to alleged cocaine kingpin Ryan Wedding \u2014 has far-reaching criminal ties and is believed to have killed people, according to the RCMP.<\/p>\n

Newly unsealed court documents provide fresh insight into the purported underworld connections of Gurpreet Singh, an accused cocaine smuggler whose name also appears in files stemming from a high-profile Toronto police corruption probe.<\/p>\n

The documents contain unproven allegations submitted to a Quebec judge in 2024 as the RCMP sought authorizations for wiretaps and to surreptitiously record a meeting in February of that year involving Singh, his uncle, Hardeep Ratte, and a Montreal-born FBI informant who was later shot dead in Colombia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Signed by RCMP Corp. Jonathan Hachey, the application alleges Singh is involved in \u201cnumerous\u201d criminal activities, \u201cknows all the major drug traffickers\/transporters in Ontario and works with many groups,\u201d including an unnamed \u201cU.K. person \u2026 who is a very big player in the drug-smuggling business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Singh is also believed to have carried out killings himself, Hachey added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Singh\u2019s lawyer, Brian Greenspan, said in an email to CBC News on Thursday that his client is not facing criminal charges in Canada, despite untested allegations made public in search warrant documents. <\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Singh has not been charged with any offence arising from the search, months after the execution of the warrants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SideSingh, left, and his uncle, Hardeep Ratte, right, were charged in a U.S. federal indictment alongside alleged cocaine kingpin Ryan Wedding in 2024. (U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California)<\/p>\n

Singh, 32, and Ratte were both arrested in the Toronto area in October 2024 as the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment in California targeting Wedding\u2019s purported transnational criminal network.\u00a0Singh and his uncle were both charged with a drug-trafficking conspiracy.<\/p>\n

Both men remain detained in a Toronto jail as U.S. prosecutors demand they be sent to Los Angeles to stand trial.<\/p>\n

An Ontario Superior Court justice ordered the unsealing this month of the partially redacted documents, following a request from Singh and Ratte\u2019s legal teams for further disclosure in an effort to fight their extradition case.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wedding, a former Team Canada Olympic snowboarder, is accused of leading a murderous criminal enterprise that smuggled 60 tonnes of cocaine per year across North America. <\/p>\n

The indictment alleges Singh and Ratte co-ordinated drug shipments to Canada for a \u201cflat rate\u201d of $220,000 Cdn per transport truck load.<\/p>\n

According to the newly unsealed documents from early 2024, investigators hadn\u2019t yet identified Ratte and only referred to him as Singh\u2019s associate known as \u201cuncle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CanadianCanadian Ryan Wedding, 44, was arrested in Mexico City and is now in custody in the U.S (FBI)<\/p>\n

The planned February 2024 meeting with the FBI informant \u2014 Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia \u2014 was ultimately held at a Brampton, Ont., auto body shop, according to U.S. prosecutors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unbeknownst to Singh and Ratte, the Canadian Colombian drug trafficker was wearing a recording device provided by the Mounties, as he discussed with them plans to move truck loads of cocaine on behalf of Wedding\u2019s network.<\/p>\n

Ontario Superior Court Justice Edward Morgan said in his decision this month that Singh and Ratte\u2019s defence teams should be given a copy of the video recording, but he declined to release the file publicly.<\/p>\n

\"AJonathan Acebedo-Garcia, a Canadian Colombian drug trafficker who turned FBI witness in the Wedding case, was shot dead in January 2025. (Submitted by name withheld)Connections from Mexico to Dubai<\/p>\n

The list of accusations surrounding the Brampton-born Singh previously reported by CBC News \u2014 as laid out by U.S. and Canadian authorities after his arrest \u2014 read like a crime novel, tying together a violent Mexican drug cartel, a European crime syndicate and York Regional Police’s sweeping Project South investigation into corruption and organized crime.<\/p>\n

Search warrant documents<\/a> from the Toronto-area corruption probe recently revealed how investigators looked into whether Singh and a personal acquaintance \u2014 a jail guard \u2014 were involved in an apparent assassination plot targeting a senior official at the jail where Singh is being held. The alleged murder attempt last year set off the sweeping investigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Neither the female acquaintance nor Singh have been charged in connection with Project South.<\/p>\n

Two days after CBC News first reported on Singh’s apparent ties to a central figure in the Project South case, Singh was moved<\/a> to a special handling unit of the facility, the Toronto South Detention Centre. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe special handling unit at the Toronto South Detention Centre is seen in a 2018 provincial report. (Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General)<\/p>\n

Singh, who went by the aliases Popey and Farmer, was previously held under much different circumstances.<\/p>\n

According to Ontario Superior Court records, Singh reported being kidnapped “and tied up” by Mexican cartel members while on a visit to Sinaloa state in August 2024 \u2014 purportedly over a $600,000 drug debt. Wedding claimed he had to personally intervene to ensure Singh’s release.<\/p>\n

The newly unsealed court documents say earlier that year, a confidential informant for the FBI said Singh was under \u201ca lot of pressure ‘from Mexicans’ to pay off his outstanding debts for cocaine loads they gave him in 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Singh asked to be released on bail early last year, U.S. prosecutors warned in a letter filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that he \u201cpresents a substantial risk of flight.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was involved in a scheme to ship stolen high-end cars through the Port of Montreal to Dubai, the L.A.-based prosecutors said. They alleged Singh has \u201cextensive organized crime connection within Dubai,\u201d including with members of the Kinahan organized crime group.<\/p>\n

\"BrownA 2025 grand jury indictment includes images of colourfully packaged cocaine bricks, allegedly linked to Wedding’s network. (U.S. District Court, Central District of California)<\/p>\n

Founded in Ireland, the prominent criminal syndicate has been linked to drug-trafficking across Europe, arms sales, money laundering and murders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSingh\u2019s criminal conduct,\u201d assistant U.S. attorneys Maria Jhai and Lyndsi Allsop wrote, \u201cmakes him a danger to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Toronto man investigated for potential involvement in a murder plot targeting a senior jail officer \u2014 and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":837831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-837830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}