Key witness in ex-Olympian Ryan Wedding drug trafficking case will no longer testify, court hears
CBC
The key witness in the case of former Olympic snowboarder and alleged drug lord Ryan Wedding will no longer be testifying at trial, an Ontario court has heard.
The revelation comes after U.S. prosecutors recently warned of risks to the safety of witnesses in the case, with Wedding still having access to a "network" of contract killers.
Wedding, 43, who is Canadian, faces murder and drug-related charges in Los Angeles, where authorities say he used stash houses to move Colombian cocaine as part of a $1-billion US transnational criminal enterprise. He's listed as one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives.
At a brief hearing Wednesday in Superior Court in Toronto, a lawyer for one of Wedding's alleged accomplices said he'd been informed "the central witness would no longer be testifying at trial."
Lawyer Peter Thorning represents Gurpreet Singh, one of Wedding's 15 co-defendants named in a U.S. indictment unsealed last October. At the time, Singh and three other men were arrested by Toronto police at the request of U.S. authorities, who want the Canadians extradited to face trial in California.
The case against them "largely relied upon the strength of a particular witness," Thorning told Ontario Superior Court Justice Todd Ducharme. Thorning did not identify the witness and said he received no explanation for why they would no longer be testifying.
Court records say a key witness in the case "trafficked drugs with Wedding for more than a decade." U.S. prosecutors previously said the cooperating witness, identified only as "CW," had agreed in 2023 to work with investigators.
Last month, U.S. prosecutors requested a protective order for documents containing information that could identify witnesses in the case. "Wedding is at large, presumably with the same access to encrypted means of communication and network of hitmen that enabled the charged murders," assistant U.S. attorney Maria Jhai wrote.
Wedding and his "second-in-command," fellow Canadian Andrew Clark, are accused of orchestrating at least four murders in Ontario, including the mistaken-identity shootings of an Indian family. "Given these demonstrated risks in this case," the prosecutor wrote, "witness safety and information security should be paramount as the case proceeds toward trial."
According to court documents, the CW met with Wedding and Clark in Mexico City in January 2024, as part of the investigation into their alleged criminal network. U.S. authorities said the men discussed arrangements to transport 350-kilogram shipments of cocaine using an Ontario-based trucking network.
Court records suggest the CW then met in Feb. 2024 with Singh and another Canadian co-defendant, Hardeep Ratte, in a meeting recorded by the RCMP. "During this meeting, Ratte agreed to transport cocaine for Wedding for a flat rate of $220,000 Cdn. per shipment," the court documents say.
Ratte appeared at the Wednesday court hearing by video link from jail. He briefly smiled and appeared to wave at someone else on screen.
The Canadian Justice Department did not immediately respond Wednesday morning when asked why the witness would no longer be testifying. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, which is prosecuting the case, also did not immediately respond to questions.
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