Two truckers have agreed to plead guilty in connection with a scheme to smuggle loads of cocaine from California to Ontario on behalf of fugitive Ryan Wedding’s criminal enterprise, CBC News has learned.
Iqbal Singh Virk and Ranjit Singh Rowal from the Toronto area are the first Canadians to sign plea deals with U.S. prosecutors following the FBI’s sprawling investigation revealed last fall, dubbed “Operation Giant Slalom.”
The probe — named after Wedding’s previous career as an elite snowboarder — sought to dismantle his alleged drug trafficking network, which uses commercial transport trucks to move tonnes of cocaine and fentanyl across North America. The group has also been linked to at least four murders in Ontario.
Wedding, who competed for Canada at the 2002 Olympic Games in Utah, is listed as one of the FBI’s most-wanted fugitives, with a $10-million US reward offered for information leading to his capture.
According to documents filed this month in U.S. District Court in L.A., Virk and Rowal have each committed to plead guilty to charges including conspiracy to distribute cocaine. The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.
They were both arrested in August 2024 as they tried to cross the Blue Water Bridge from Michigan to the Sarnia, Ont., area, while carrying 95 kg of cocaine bricks and 20 kg of heroin in a secret compartment in their truck’s trailer.
They concealed the drugs by carrying legal goods and documentation to show the products were meant to be hauled from the U.S. to Canada.
U.S. border agents, however, pulled over the truck for a secondary inspection, where an X-ray scanner and a sniffer dog revealed the “non-factory” compartment.
A search of Ontario licence plate records by CBC News indicates the trailer was registered to a Brampton, Ont.-based company linked to Rowal, 65.
A U.S. grand jury indictment unsealed last October named Virk and Rowal — Indian citizens who hold permanent resident status in Canada — and 14 others as members of Wedding’s drug ring. The indictment said the pair worked on behalf of a transportation network that handled Wedding’s shipments to Canada.
However, the transnational criminal operation didn’t always go smoothly. Court documents reveal an internal dispute in May 2024 led to one big drug shipment being called off.
Virk and Rowal’s plea agreements recount how the pair pulled over at a rest stop in southern California, expecting to receive a 347-kg load of cocaine.
Their truck, however, only had room for 250 kg.
Through an intermediary, Wedding purportedly offered to pay $150,000 Cdn to move the reduced shipment — instead of the agreed upon rate of $220,000. But Gurpreet Singh, allegedly a leader of the transportation network, wouldn’t agree to the cut rate.
The shipment was called off.
Singh and his uncle, Hardeep Ratte, who are accused of co-ordinating cocaine shipments to Canada for Wedding, both remain in custody in Ontario while facing extradition to the U.S.
They’re scheduled to appear in a Toronto court on Wednesday.
U.S. prosecutors have said Wedding — whose aliases include Public Enemy, Giant and “El Jefe” or “The Boss” — is still trafficking drugs while on the run, and has access to a “network of hitmen.”
CBC News visual investigations team, in partnership with international researchers from the Bellingcat Discord community, located the exact spot where one of the last images of Ryan Wedding was taken. Wedding, an alleged Canadian drug lord, is among the FBI’s top 10 most-wanted fugitives. CBC is the first to report and confirm these findings.
Earlier this month, the FBI told CBC News it was seeking to gather tips on Wedding’s whereabouts from people in a region of central Mexico. Investigators have suggested Wedding may be living in the country, under the protection of the murderous Sinaloa cartel.
CBC News recently reported that a historic drug bust in Peel Region, west of Toronto, mirrored the smuggling route used by Virk and Rowal. Peel police said it’s highly likely Wedding’s network remains active in the area.
CBC senior reporter Thomas Daigle has reported extensively on the case of fugitive alleged drug kingpin Ryan Wedding. Send news tips to [email protected].
