Jamie Poisson (2:47)

Yeah, and he makes it to the 2002 Olympics though. Am I right to say that his showing was a bit disappointing? Like he didn't met.

CBC Narrator (2:56)

Though this would be his only time competing on the world's biggest stage, failing to qualify for the next round.

Jamie Poisson (3:04)

And then he goes on to Simon Fraser University for a few years. And based on your reporting, where did his first foray into the drug world allegedly begin? Here.

Calvi Leon (3:17)

His criminal record dates back to just a couple years after his Olympic debut. So in 2006, he was named on a search warrant for a property in British Columbia that was suspected of conducting a massive illegal marijuana grow up. So when the RCMP actually raided that property, they found a mix of dried cannabis and plants worth about $10 million.

Jamie Poisson (3:36)

But he was never charged in that bust, right?

Calvi Leon (3:40)

No, he was not.

Jamie Poisson (3:41)

And then two years after that, he gets mixed up in a scheme to smuggle some, like, 24 kilograms of cocaine into Canada via San Diego. Right. And so tell me about what happens here.

Calvi Leon (3:53)

Yeah, so 2008 is like when we get the first sort of glimpse of a guy who's involved in international drug trafficking. So he had partnered with another Canadian to smuggle 24 kilos of cocaine into Canada. He flew from Vancouver to California to meet a seller who was a former KGB agent actually working as an informant for authorities. So Wedding and these two other guys actually went to purchase cocaine from this informant, but were arrested during the transaction.

Jamie Poisson (4:22)

What really struck me in the reporting here was that, you know, in this whole bust, the other guy involved pleaded guilty.

Calvi Leon (4:30)

Right.

Jamie Poisson (4:31)

But Wedding, he pleads not guilty, and he stands trial in 2009. And what kind of picture did we get of him and his defense in this trial?

Calvi Leon (4:42)

Yeah, I mean, as you mentioned, he pleaded not guilty. The defense sort of painted this picture of him being the fall guy, of somebody who was a bit player in the grander scheme, too, smuggle cocaine into Canada.

Jamie Poisson (4:55)

But the other guy, the one who pleaded guilty, painted him as a ringleader, right?

Calvi Leon (4:59)

Exactly.

Jamie Poisson (4:59)

Yeah.

Calvi Leon (5:00)

The other guy said that he was actually the mastermind of the entire scheme.

Jamie Poisson (5:03)

Right, And. And he actually is convicted, right?

Calvi Leon (5:06)

Yes. In the end, he is convicted of the lesser charge of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. You know, during the case, during the trial, he actually presented himself as somebody who. Who still was an athlete, somebody who volunteered his time, who was working hard, who was going to go back and complete his degree. You know, he said to the judge, what he did was completely ut character for him.

CBC Narrator (5:26)

Court records we obtained show Wedding later told a judge, I've had an opportunity to see firsthand what drugs do to people. And honestly, I'm ashamed that I became part of the problem.

Calvi Leon (5:38)

The judge actually imposed a Four year sentence, which was lower than what he initially intended.

Jamie Poisson (5:54)

He spends that time in San Diego. Right. In a prison in San Diego. And then he's transferred also to the Reeves County Detention Complex in Texas, the largest for profit prison in the world. And just briefly describe for me what we know about his experience in prison. As I understand it, this is kind of important to understand.

Calvi Leon (6:17)

Absolutely. Speaking to law enforcement sources, people who knew Ryan Wedding directly from this case at the time, they say that, you know, these two prisons sort of act as a hub for traffickers in San Diego. The facility's proximity to Mexico makes the correctional center a hub for criminals convicted of drug trafficking. So you got people from all over Mexico and Central America that are getting caught at the border and ending up here.

Jamie Poisson (6:44)

Yeah. I've heard people frame this as like a networking opportunity for someone like Ryan Wedding. Maybe a bit of a sidebar. He gets married in prison, too. Hey.

Calvi Leon (6:55)

Yeah. So that's when he ends up moving over to the facility in Texas. So he served his time there as well. And then he actually gets married to a Canadian entrepreneur in 2011 in prison, which is just an interesting little tidbit.

Jamie Poisson (7:11)

Yeah. Okay, so gets out of prison in the United States, and he gets deported to Canada in December of 2011, and he settles in Montreal. And what do we know about where he goes next?

Calvi Leon (7:26)

Yeah, so, I mean, as you mentioned, like, he just gets out of prison, which is like, this area where he's able to network and foster these connections that would later help him. So it's not long after that he's actually named in a RCMP investigation that uncovered several plots to smuggle cocaine into Canada. And so Wenning and several other Canadians are facing charges in this investigation. It's a massive sting that involves people living in several different countries with an estimated 15 tons of cocaine worth at least 750 million.

Jamie Poisson (7:59)

Okay, and so this is Operation Harrington, right?

Calvi Leon (8:03)

Correct. Yes. So what's interesting is that in court records, they actually suggest that Wedding was a senior partner in this conspiracy, that he was allegedly working with men directly tied to El Chapo. So in one meeting, a Montreal trafficker actually introduced him as the man in charge to an undercover police officer. And then Wedding ultimately was charged with conspiracy to import and traffic cocaine. But when the RCMP showed up to arrest him in Montreal, he was already gone. So he's believed to have fled the country. And he's actually been on the run ever since then.

Jamie Poisson (8:33)

And the theory is that he is probably in Mexico. The FBI have said that he's extremely.

CBC Narrator (8:41)

Violent and he's extremely wealthy. He's being protected by the Sinaloa cartel along with others in the country of Mexico.

Jamie Poisson (8:50)

Do we know whether or not there's a relationship between Wedding and El Chapo himself?

Calvi Leon (8:56)

In my reporting, I haven't seen anything directly that ties Wedding to El Chapo. But what I have seen is that it ties him to El Chapo's associates. So, yes, we know. We know that, you know, there were connections in this world that were being made as early as 2015.

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Jamie Poisson (10:19)

This is a TVO Today podcast. Okay, so he goes. He goes on the Lam in 2015. He escapes Canada. He's a wanted man. And the FBI and other law enforcement agencies say that he continues to be heavily involved in the drug trade. I guess ostensibly, or they think from Mexico. Right. And so how.

Calvi Leon (10:48)

Yeah, I mean, the next time we hear his name come up is at a press conference in October 2024 when the FBI, the RC, he and other authorities accuse Brian Wedding of being the leader, the mastermind of a massive international drug trafficking organization that is smuggling tons and tons of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico, through Southern California into Canada. They also accuse him and another Canadian of ordering assassinations all over the world on arrivals or enemies of this organization.

CBC Narrator (11:21)

Mexican troops moved in on a restaurant in Guadalajara, arresting a Canadian facing murder charges for violent killings in Ontario. Andrew Clark is named in a US Indictment as the right hand man of former Olympian turned fugitive Ryan Wedding.

Jamie Poisson (11:39)

Okay, let's talk about the alleged murders because law enforcement is painting this wildly violent picture here.

CBC Narrator (11:46)

This group was ruthless and violent. They would use contract killers to assassinate anyone who they. Who they saw as an obstacle to their operation. All of these victims were intentionally shot execution style so their loved ones could see them murdered.

Jamie Poisson (12:03)

And just tell me more about what they allege happened, some of what they alleged happened and like here on Canadian soil and in other places around the world.

Calvi Leon (12:14)

Yeah. So American authorities alleged that Wedding and his right hand man, Andrew Clark, ordered hits on multiple people around the world. But specifically here in Ontario, four different cases. So they. One of those. One of those cases was a shooting that happened in Caledon in November 2023. A shooting that I covered extensively. That has kind of led me to where I am today. So in that case, it was a. An Indian couple who were killed after a gunman stormed their kids rental home on the Brampton and border and shot them multiple times, as well as their daughter. Many shots were fired inside this home on Mayfield Road. It all happened just before midnight.

Jamie Poisson (12:58)

And police now say they are searching for multiple suspects.

Calvi Leon (13:01)

And while we still don't, their daughter was shot 13 times and survived. She's the only survivor of that shooting. I still have to learn sitting, standing, walking, it's been very hard. And so in that case, you know, at the time, police eventually would reveal that it was a case of mistaken identity. But they didn't connect Wedding to him until that October 2024 press conference. And they said that Wedding had ordered the hits on that family, thinking that it was the family of somebody else who stole drugs from his operation. This family was mistakenly targeted in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment.

Jamie Poisson (13:34)

Okay, and there are other alleged hits, right?

Calvi Leon (13:37)

Yeah. So then we also know of a, of a case in Niagara Falls, a man who was killed there, and a case in Brampton where another man was killed in retaliation for stolen drugs.

Jamie Poisson (13:49)

And, and we also hear about this hitman that the police arrest. And just. Can you tell me more about him and his alleged connection?

Calvi Leon (13:57)

Yeah, I mean, so the alleged hitman you're referring to is Malik Cunningham. He's a 24 year old man from Toronto. So Cunningham's accused of actually going to Niagara Falls and killing this person, Randy Fader, in the driveway of his home. So after the murder, Cunningham gets away, he evades capture and he manages to escape. But two weeks later at a funeral for a homicide victim. That's unrelated to this case. Police with an entirely different jurisdiction, York Regional Police, pull over Cunningham's car because the license plate appeared to be fraudulent, and they arrested him. And then during the arrest, Cunningham supposedly asked an officer to retrieve a dollar Emma bag in the car. And then when the officer goes to the car, he actually notices an unusual large quantity of cash in this bag. That's when they apply for another arrest warrant. And they find a white iPhone among other cell phones. This white iPhone is key because they would later seize the white iPhone and find hundreds and hundreds of text messages from encrypted group chats connecting Cunningham to the murder scene and to Wedding and Clark. And so that, by chance, is how they were able to uncover all of this evidence against Cunningham and Wedding in Clark.

Jamie Poisson (15:17)

Okay, so we've got this information about Cunningham which has not been proven in court. And now I want to introduce another character into the mix. Here is a Canadian, a Colombian Canadian guy named Jonathan Acevedo Garcia. And can you tell me who he was and his alleged connections and role with Wedding?

Calvi Leon (15:38)

Jonathan, who's born in Montreal, actually worked with Wedding for more than a decade. The two of them actually met in that Texas prison where Wedding was serving his first sentence for that drug offense. Jonathan actually agreed to work with the FBI in late 2023. So he was key to the case. He flew around the world to conduct meetings with Weddings, alleged guys. He recorded conversations and obtained encrypted messages for investigators. So his cooperation really threatened to bring Wedding down. And then by the summer of 2024, authorities actually had enough evidence to charge Wedding and several other Canadians. And then in the fall of that year, that is when they would announce the results of the probe.

Jamie Poisson (16:17)

Right, and just tell me a little bit more about that. And then what ends up happening to Jonathan Acebedo Garcia?

Calvi Leon (16:24)

Yeah, so Acebedo Garcia was obviously crucial to the case. He was also set to testify at trial. And then earlier this year, Jonathan was actually assassinated in Medellin, Colombia, at a Russian restaurant. So obviously, his death threw the future of the case into a large question mark, really. I mean, it's clear from court records that authorities relied heavily on Achebedo Garcia to obtain evidence that would be used at trial. And so when he was killed, you know, the big question that came to mind was, what does this mean for the prosecution? How is this going to affect the case? What's the future of the case going to be? Another question that, you know is still unanswered to date is, was Achebedo Garcia in any witness protection? So, since his death, prosecutors have postponed a trial in California, and they've actually revised records of the case that they plan to use at future trials because of Jonathan's death.

Jamie Poisson (17:21)

And then another twist in this whole thing is that there are all of these arrests that happen last week, which we're going to get to. But one of the people arrested is this high profile Canadian lawyer, a guy named Deepak Paradkar. And he is now facing extradition to the US and the FBI is essentially alleging that he like, advised this hit in Medellin.

Calvi Leon (17:46)

Yeah, his lawyer advised them to kill this witness. His lawyer told him if you kill this witness, the case would be dismissed. That lawyer is now in custody and he'll be extra. The allegations are truly explosive and have absolutely rocked legal circles in the gta.

CBC Narrator (18:01)

It's, it's very surreal having somebody you know facing these allegations.

Calvi Leon (18:07)

Pradhkar is a well known defense lawyer in the gta. You know, at one point he was nicknamed Napoleon for his tough courtroom tactics.

CBC Narrator (18:14)

Deepak Paradkaur, who previously went by the handle cocaine lawyer on social media, now faces charges linked to a massive criminal operation that smuggles cocaine. He's known for representing convicted killer Dellen Millard and was also accused of wrongdoing in that case.

Calvi Leon (18:32)

So Piraticar is accused of playing an essential role in Wedding's operation. They actually describe him as an integral part of the scheme, helping with the day to day operations. So he's accused of many things. Among them, he's accused of allegedly feeding court information on clients to help Wedding investigate how cocaine shipments were being seized by authorities and of paying other defense lawyers in Canada and the U.S. to help learn if any of Weddings traffickers were cooperating with authorities. And then at one point, he allegedly advised Wedding directly that if he killed the FBI's key witness at Chobero Garcia, the case against him would fall apart.

Jamie Poisson (19:07)

So he's one of the 10 people arrested last week, Paradkar. And I'll just say again that none of these allegations have been proven in court at this time, including the allegations against Paradkar. But of the 10, seven of them were Canadian. They also included an alleged Montreal organized crime leader, a Colombian madame behind a network of sex workers. There is a former junior hockey player in Calgary, a Toronto jeweler and professional poker player who was allegedly Weddings accountant. Like, I'm literally not making this up. And just what does this all add to the picture here for you? Like all of this new information, it.

Calvi Leon (19:52)

Is quite the cast of characters for myself who I've been on the case for a long time. This sort of reinforces one, just how big Ryan Wedding is. This guy's working with Canadians, Americans, people in Mexico and Colombia, people all over the world, to run this massive empire that authorities accuse him of leading.

Jamie Poisson (20:24)

Let's end then today talking about Ryan himself. So we've talked about how authorities believe that he may be in Mexico under the protection of the Sinaloa cartel. It seems to me like his operation would be damaged by these latest arrests and all the attention that's been put on him since 2024. But is that. Do people think that that's true? Like, does law enforcement think that he is still operating?

Calvi Leon (20:59)

It's my understanding that they do think he's still running this. This operation. I mean, it's. That's the question. I mean, how much of this. I mean, obviously, this is a blow to his organization, but just how much it actually has an impact on the organization is a bit of a question mark. It seems like it would be quite substantial. So that's something that we're gonna, I think, see play out moving forward. Also, another question to think about is, you know, with these people who are arrested, how much are they gonna cooperate with authorities? Are they gonna be able to help authorities uncover new evidence? Are there gonna. Is there gonna be another press conference in a couple months or in a year's time announcing even more arrests? These are things that I'm thinking about and that we're gonna. We're gonna see. But, yeah, in the meantime, he obviously is not arrested. He continues to evade capture. He's in hiding. And then there's obviously the question of what does that look like? I mean, we know there's the reward. Is anyone going to turn on him for 15 million?

Jamie Poisson (21:55)

Yeah. I don't know. Like, if you have the attention of the US Government on you and the Canadian government, like, what. Why do. And now this $15 million bounty, it was 10 million before, so if you could just elaborate on sort of what that protection really means.

Calvi Leon (22:12)

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, he's obviously considered an asset to the cartels. He's able to continue doing. And so as long as he can continue operating his organization, I don't see why they would turn on him. I mean, $15 million to them really isn't that much when they're making that much just from a couple cocaine shipments, if you look at it like that. That said, is there a possibility that somebody could turn on him? Absolutely.

Jamie Poisson (22:38)

Okay, Calvi, I feel like we could probably keep going here, but we should. We should. This feels like a good place to end it, and we'll have to get you back on soon to kind of bring us up to speed on. On the latest here.

Calvi Leon (22:53)

Yeah, absolutely.

Jamie Poisson (23:03)

All right, that's all for today. I'm Jamie Poisson. Thanks so much. Talk to you tomorrow.

CBC Narrator (23:18)

For more cbc podcasts, go to cbc ca podcasts.