Brampton truck driver Iqbal Singh Virk, 58 has been sentenced to nine years (108 months) in a U.S. federal prison after admitting his role in a cross-border transportation network moving large quantities of cocaine from California into Canada. Virk’s eventual plea agreement acknowledged that the conspiracy involved more than 1,800 kilograms of cocaine. For Virk, the operation came to an end on Aug. 28, 2024, when his truck reached the U.S. side of the Blue Water Bridge. A search of the truck uncovered a concealed compartment containing 95kg of cocaine and 20kg of heroin. He's been caged ever since. Co-driver and truck owner Ranjeet Singh Rowal previously pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 37 months.
Rolan Sokolovski, accused of laundering hundreds of millions for Ryan Wedding, was denied bail. Prosecutors opposed his release, arguing Sokolovski posed a flight risk and his detention was necessary to protect the public and confidence in the justice system. The judge agreed. Sokolovski is alleged to have played a key role in the criminal enterprise by laundering drug money through his jewelry business and procuring luxury items for Wedding. Allistair Chapman was also denied bail.
The two key money men behind Wedding's network were Toronto jeweller Rolan Sokolovski and former Italian special forces member Gianluca Tiepolo. Tiepolo “worked closely with Sokolovski to procure and manage Wedding’s physical assets, including high-end vehicles,” and held “millions of dollars in Wedding’s property under his own name to conceal these assets from authorities.”
Main man at the executive table was 'Cocaine Lawyer' Deepak Paradkar. An Ontario court granted bail to Deepak Paradkar, Wedding's Toronto-area defence lawyer.
Ryan Wedding 44, who FBI Director Kash Patel labelled the “modern-day iteration of Pablo Escobar,” was under increasing pressure in Mexico. Under the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel, his decision to return to Mexico was a mistake.
Rasheed Pascua Hossain, 32, is accused in the U.S. of laundering hundreds of millions for fugitive Ryan Wedding’s cocaine trafficking network. Hossain, who went by the alias JP Morgan, was granted bail. If anybody has the means to avoid a lifetime in a US jail it’s Hossain.
Rasheed Pascua Hossain sent Wedding more than $200m worth of Tether stablecoin between April 29, 2024 and Oct. 5, 2024. The network would continue to send each other massive sums of Tether, often using the crypto exchange platform KuCoin. Hossain was a key part of Weddings money laundering network.
Gursewak Singh Bal is charged. Bal was paid $10,000 by Wedding associate Allistair Chapman in October 2024 not to post about defendant Wedding and right hand man Clark but to post the witness’s photo instead so he could be located and whacked. On Jan. 31, 2025, Wedding sent a message to an associate saying the victim was dead. The same day Bal posted a story depicting a photograph of the restaurant and part of a body lying on the ground, and a caption that read: “(Victim A) down…” and “BOOM! Headshot.”
After advice from Paradkar, Wedding paid Gursewak Singh Bal to post photos of Acebedo-Garcia and his wife. Drug trafficker turned informant Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia, 42, was gunned down in a Medellin restaurant before he could testify in the FBI case against Wedding. A U.S. federal indictment charges 15 with orchestrating the January 2025 murder of Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia, who was shot five times in the head.
Gurpreet Singh and Hardeep Ratte are two of Wedding's co-defendants. Acebedo-Garcia met with Singh and his uncle, Hardeep Ratte, at a Toronto-area auto body shop. The judge was told prosecutors in California have video of the meeting, as well as chat records from the encrypted-messaging app Threema. U.S. prosecutors warned against granting bail to Singh, who Wedding took credit for negotiating the release of, after Singh was kidnapped by cartel members in Sinaloa over a $600k drug debt. Singh has "extensive organized crime connections within Dubai, including relationships with members of the Kinahan gang." Singh was involved in a scheme to ship stolen high-end cars to Dubai through the port of Montreal.
Toronto cops arrested Singh on the 34th floor of the five-star St. Regis Hotel. He claimed poverty and to not be a flight risk. Bail was denied.
