Deepak Paradkar is among eight Canadians who were arrested in November and are facing extradition to the U.S.Mark Blinch/The Canadian Press
The Law Society of Ontario has suspended the licence of a Toronto-area lawyer facing criminal charges in the United States tied to alleged cocaine kingpin Ryan Wedding.
During a law society tribunal hearing Friday, the legal regulator cited a raft of criminal allegations against Deepak Paradkar in U.S. courts. These included conspiracy to murder a witness, conspiracy to export and distribute cocaine, and engaging in a criminal enterprise.
The law society noted that there were reasonable grounds to believe that allowing the lawyer to continue working would present a significant risk of harm to members of the public or to the public interest. The order bars Mr. Paradkar from practising law or providing legal services, pending a final decision on his case.
Mr. Paradkar was not present for Friday’s virtual hearing. His lawyer, Ravin Pillay, did not oppose the interim suspension.
Long before Ryan Wedding was one of the FBI’s most wanted, he was swept up in a U.S. drug case
“Although this was an uncontested application ... I think it’s important to state that Mr. Paradkar denies the allegations, maintains his innocence and intends to vigorously defend against the criminal charges at the appropriate time, in the appropriate form,” Mr. Pillay told the tribunal.
Mr. Pillay and Mr. Paradkar have both served on the defence team for serial killer Dellen Millard.
None of the allegations against Mr. Paradkar have been tested in court. He is among several Canadians who were arrested in November and are facing extradition to the U.S. in the sprawling case against Mr. Wedding. He has been charged with multiple offences, including allegedly advising Mr. Wedding to kill a key witness who was set to testify against him.
The regulator in its decision relied on an indictment unsealed in Los Angeles last month alleging that Mr. Wedding – a Canadian former Olympic snowboarder accused of heading an international drug syndicate – used Mr. Paradkar as a drug-organization operative.
Ryan Wedding competed for Team Canada in the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002.Adam Pretty/Getty Images
An affidavit by law society investigator Deanna O’Brien cited U.S. documents and Ontario Superior court filings alleging that Mr. Paradkar “was an integral member” and associate of the “Wedding Criminal Enterprise” – an alleged billion-dollar international drug syndicate working with Mexican cartels to move cocaine from Colombia to Mexico, then into the U.S. and Canada.
The law society documents state that Mr. Paradkar was allegedly responsible for setting up at least one drug transportation line, citing court documents.
In instances where police seized drugs, Mr. Paradkar allegedly oversaw the gathering of information from legal counsel and authorities on behalf of Mr. Wedding. He was allegedly paid in the form of bulk cash drops and expensive watches, the law society documents state.
Who are the Canadians facing charges connected to Ryan Wedding?
In April, 2024, U.S. authorities intercepted a shipment containing more than 375 kilograms of cocaine bound for Canada in California and arrested the courier. The U.S. indictment accused Mr. Paradkar of arranging for an American lawyer to represent the courier so he could monitor the case on Mr. Wedding’s behalf.
Later that year, police in Arkansas pulled over two vehicles carrying 521 kilograms of cocaine, headed for the northern border. Court filings in Canada related to Mr. Paradkar’s extradition case say that he allegedly weighed into a group chat involving the cartel’s accused leaders – called “911 Arkansa.”
When the accused leaders discussed “killing everyone involved” to keep them from talking to investigators, court records say, Mr. Paradkar tapped out strict instructions: “Clear this convo,” he allegedly said, adding, “set up a separate group for you” and “only lawyer stuff for me.”
The Ontario Superior Court filings show that the evidence against Mr. Paradkar comes from a co-operating Federal Bureau of Investigation witness, and from a phone belonging to Mr. Wedding’s alleged second-in-command, Andrew Clark. The phone was seized by Mexican authorities and handed over to the FBI in March, 2025, after Mr. Clark’s arrest.
In the group chat, Mr. Paradkar allegedly asked for the drivers’ names and licences, said he would “look into it,” and asked whether there were “any relatives” he could contact.
The law society affidavit also notes the accusation that Mr. Paradkar sent Mr. Clark screenshots of evidence gathered by Ontario Provincial Police after shootings in Caledon, Ont., in 2023. Mr. Wedding is accused of directing the shootings, which left two people dead and wounded a third, who all turned out to be unintended targets.
The most serious accusations against Mr. Paradkar concern the murder of Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia, an alleged former trafficker in the Wedding organization who became an FBI witness.
Authorities believe that Mr. Wedding began suspecting Mr. Acebedo-Garcia after the U.S. Department of Justice revealed it had secured a co-operating witness in an earlier unsealed indictment outlining charges against Mr. Wedding’s organization in 2024.
A timeline of Ryan Wedding’s shift from Olympic snowboarder to alleged drug kingpin and FBI fugitive
Authorities allege Mr. Paradkar told Mr. Wedding that if the witness was eliminated, the indictment would almost certainly be dismissed. Mr. Acebedo-Garcia was murdered in January, shot five times while eating lunch at a restaurant in Medellín, Colombia.
A criminal lawyer who has been practising law in Ontario since 1993, Mr. Paradkar was known for representing accused drug dealers and high-profile clients.
He was reprimanded by the Ontario law society in 2017 after it became known he was using the Instagram handle “Cocaine_lawyer” and boasting about clients who beat drug charges.
But in criminal defence circles, Mr. Paradkar had been a well-respected lawyer who’d built a “thriving, successful” career, said Jordana Goldlist, a Toronto lawyer who had handled matters in the same courtroom as Mr. Paradkar.
“You need to be well-regarded in order to end up defending high-profile cases,” she said. “That takes hard work and dedication, tactics and intelligence.”
However, Ms. Goldlist added: “If these allegations are true, of course, it’s concerning.”
Mr. Paradkar is currently in custody at the Toronto East Detention Centre. He has a bail hearing scheduled at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice for Dec. 10.