Court Documents Link Project South Probe, Ryan Wedding Drug Case, and 'Cocaine Lawyer' Allegations

Newly released court documents are shedding more light on the alleged link between a sweeping police corruption probe in Ontario and the case of former Canadian Olympian Ryan Wedding, who is accused of running an international drug trafficking ring, while also revealing new accusations against a Brampton lawyer known as the "cocaine lawyer."

Gurpreet Singh, accused by U.S. authorities of helping co-ordinate cocaine shipments for Wedding, was investigated for his potential involvement in an alleged plot to kill a Toronto corrections facility officer, documents unsealed on Friday show. The police probe of that alleged plot led to Project South, a massive investigation by York Region police that uncovered allegations of bribery, conspiracy to commit murder and drug trafficking, among other offences.

Seven Toronto police officers and one retired constable were among 27 suspects charged in that investigation. Allegations against them include accessing personal information and leaking it to members of an organized crime group who then carried out crimes including shootings, extortions and robberies. To date, Project South has resulted in the arrests of 28 people, including seven active Toronto officers and one retired constable.

Singh, who is awaiting extradition to the United States, has not been criminally charged as part of Project South. But newly unsealed court documents note an investigation into his potential role in the alleged plot to murder a senior corrections officer at Toronto South Detention Centre, where Singh was being held. In response to a request for comment, Singh's lawyer wrote: "The fact that Mr. Singh has not been charged with any offence in Canada more than four months after the execution of the warrants is the clearest response to the allegations in the information to obtain."

The unredacted portions of the documents show that Singh's personal communications were intercepted and monitored as part of the Project South probe. The same batch of documents also shows that police were investigating Nishwant Dosanjh, a correctional officer at the Toronto South Detention Centre, who allegedly had a previous romantic relationship with Singh and had spent "extraordinarily long periods" of time with the inmate. Investigators wrote that they believed Dosanjh had expressed animosity toward the correctional officer who was the target of the murder plot, and that she took the initial picture of his vehicle that was later used by alleged criminals to identify and target his residence. Dosanjh has not been criminally charged in the Project South case and none of the allegations against her in the ITO documents have been tested in court. Her lawyer said her client denies any allegations of criminal or professional misconduct and "adamantly maintains her complete innocence."

The documents detail how investigators believed that Singh potentially directed the attempted murder plot against a Toronto jail official, and how he was allegedly assisted by a supervisor at the jail. The man at the centre of the alleged hit is Malik Cunningham — the alleged Toronto hit man who was picked up almost by chance in 2024. Singh was an inmate inside the Toronto South Detention Centre last June, when three masked gunmen stormed the home of the jail official in an apparent contracted hit. Three masked gunmen were arrested outside the jail official's home in a dramatic takedown by York Regional Police officers on June 20, 2025.

In a separate but related development, new accusations have emerged against Deepak Paradkar, a well-known Brampton, Ont., criminal defence lawyer who once went by "cocaine lawyer" on social media. Paradkar was arrested in November, amid accusations he played a key role in Wedding's alleged murderous drug-trafficking empire. According to a new U.S. court filing, after an FBI informant was killed last year, Paradkar doubled down on his assertion that the FBI's case against Wedding would unravel. Prosecutors have previously alleged that Paradkar advised Wedding and his second-in-command Andrew Clark to kill the informant to ensure the case against them would collapse. In the new filing, Paradkar is accused of "reaffirming that belief" in conversations with Wedding and a co-operating witness that the FBI's case was "no longer viable" after the January 2025 killing of Montreal-born former drug trafficker-turned-FBI informant Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia.

The case record states Paradkar had access to high-level drug traffickers through his law practice and used it to broker deals and facilitate client introductions. It's alleged that Paradkar was on Wedding's payroll and "oversaw cases of individuals arrested that could report on the Wedding [drug trafficking organization]." The document reads that Paradkar would obtain discovery, pass it onto Wedding and Clark, and at times let Wedding and Clark listen in on client conversations. It says Clark paid Paradkar approximately $1 million in a 12-month period for various "favours." U.S. authorities also accuse Paradkar of helping Wedding and Clark obtain information on two of the Wedding organization's alleged drug couriers who had been arrested in October 2024 when police conducted a traffic stop in Arkansas and seized approximately 1,000 pounds of cocaine.

Paradkar is facing extradition to the U.S., where he could receive a life sentence if he is convicted of charges including conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to retaliate against a witness. His license to practice law was suspended in December and he was released on $5-million bail. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Ryan Wedding, the alleged drug kingpin who once represented Canada at the Olympics as a snowboarder, was arrested in Mexico in January, capping off a years-long manhunt. The FBI has alleged that Singh, among other co-accused, conspired with Wedding to send cocaine shipments weighing hundreds of kilograms from California to Canada. Those allegations have not been proven in U.S. courts.

Hundreds of pages of information-to-obtain (ITO) documents police filed in the Project South probe remain redacted. Such documents detail what police believe to be true at the time of filing, but the allegations they contain about named suspects or investigation targets have not been tested in court. An Ontario Superior Court judge lifted the ban on some information on Friday.