Months before an FBI witness was gunned down in broad daylight, a Toronto-area lawyer allegedly advised his client: “if you kill this witness, the case will be dismissed”.
Speaking to media on Wednesday, US attorney Bill Essayli alleged that this advice, between lawyer Deepak Paradkar and Ryan Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder who ended up on the FBI’s most wanted list for allegedly running a sprawling drug trafficking empire, helped trigger a series of events that led to a key federal witness being gunned down at a restaurant in Medellín, Colombia.
In exchange for his services, Mr Paradkar, who for a time posted on social media as @cocaine_lawyer, was allegedly paid in luxury watches and extra lawyer fees.
Those allegations and more were contained in a 54-page FBI indictment that was unsealed on Wednesday by the US Justice Department. It named 19 defendants, including Mr Wedding and Mr Paradkar, as being connected to the murder of the federal witness, named in local media as Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia, in January.
Also included in the alleged scheme to silence a federal witness are a reggaeton musician, a Toronto-based operator of a gang news website and the Colombian madame of a high-end prostitution ring, according to the indictment.
Ten, including Mr Paradkar, are now in custody and facing extradition to the US. None have entered a plea yet, and the allegations have not been proven in court.
Mr Wedding, 44, is still at large, with Canadian and US authorities placing a $15m (£11.5m) bounty on his capture. They have warned that he will stop at nothing to evade the police — even possibly undergoing plastic surgery to avoid being caught.
