Toronto-area defence lawyer Deepak Paradkar is a member of alleged drug trafficker Ryan Wedding’s inner circle whose penchant for Rolex watches, Gucci bags and Maserati cars belies his arguments that he should be given bail, a prosecutor told court on Thursday.

Crown attorney Heather Graham told a Toronto court that Mr. Paradkar is a flight risk who could flee to Mexico, where Mr. Wedding is believed to be hiding, or elsewhere in the world if he is released.

Toronto-area lawyer Deepak Paradkar, who is facing extradition to the United States on charges tied to the sprawling case against alleged cocaine kingpin and fugitive Ryan Wedding, argued for his release on bail Wednesday, telling the court that he is prepared to post as much as $5-million.

Mr. Paradkar, 62, is accused of murder conspiracy in the killing of a witness for the FBI who was expected to testify against Mr. Wedding. Wearing a blue blazer and with a grey beard, Mr. Paradkar appeared in the witness box in Ontario Superior Court to make a plea for his interim release from jail, where he has been held since his arrest in November, pending the outcome of his extradition proceeding.

The Supreme Court of Canada has restored a Toronto nurse’s attempted-murder conviction while saying it need not clarify when murder charges can be laid against people who provoke apparent suicides.

“The question of the legal relationship between attempted murder and aiding suicide has no bearing” on the case at hand, Supreme Court Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin wrote in the majority decision.

The Law Society of Ontario is seeking to suspend the licence of Toronto-area lawyer Deepak Paradkar, citing the criminal charges he faces in connection to the sprawling U.S. case against alleged cocaine kingpin Ryan Wedding.

Mr. Paradkar is among eight Canadians who were arrested last week and are facing extradition to the U.S. 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 Toronto-area lawyer for alleged drug kingpin Ryan Wedding and a Vancouver man accused of laundering money for the former Olympic snowboarder appeared in court Wednesday as part of proceedings to extradite them to the U.S.

Two other men who are among the eight Canadians charged last week in relation to the alleged international drug-trafficking ring also had scheduled court appearances on Wednesday.

A white-supremacist group known as the Terrorgram Collective, whose online manifestos glorifying Nazis are aimed at youth, has been blamed for inspiring a deadly shooting at a gay bar in Slovakia in 2022 and a mass stabbing at a mosque in Turkey in 2024.

The group’s online reach has become apparent in Ontario, where judges in Ottawa and Toronto have recently convicted two men of terrorism charges for spreading Terrorgram’s propaganda.

In October, 2024, police in Arkansas pulled over two vehicles carrying 521 kilograms of cocaine bound for Canada. Within hours, court records say, bosses in a powerful drug cartel were discussing “killing everyone involved” to keep them from talking to investigators.

Soon, a lawyer from Brampton, Ont., allegedly weighed into a group chat with the cartel’s leaders with strict instructions: “Clear this convo,” he said, adding “set up a separate group for you” and “only lawyer stuff for me.”

Law-enforcement officials say there are nine people from Canada they have either arrested or are looking for as part of a larger investigation into Ryan Wedding, the former Canadian snowboarder who is accused of running a violent international drug-trafficking operation.

Many of the new details released in court documents on Wednesday relate to the alleged murder of Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia, a witness in Colombia.

Who is Ryan Wedding, the former Canadian Olympic snowboarder on the FBI’s Most Wanted list?

U.S. and Canadian authorities announced new arrests, indictments and sanctions on Wednesday connected to what they allege is a violent international drug-trafficking network run by Canadian ex-Olympic snowboarder turned fugitive Ryan Wedding, who remains in hiding in Mexico despite a multimillion-dollar reward and a manhunt that has stretched on more than a year.

Police arrested seven people across Canada: including a Toronto-area lawyer accused of advising Mr. Wedding to kill a witness in Colombia; an accused drug dealer in Montreal alleged to have been involved in orchestrating the killing; and a jeweller in Toronto accused of helping Mr. Wedding launder money. Two others are wanted but were not in custody as of Wednesday.

The United States is seeking the extradition of a Montreal man who has been arrested and charged with murder conspiracy, amid media reports that the case is related to international drug-trafficking allegations against former Canadian snowboarder-turned-fugitive Ryan Wedding.

Atna Onha, 40, appeared in court in Montreal on Tuesday, but few details were available about the allegations. La Presse and Radio-Canada reported that the alleged victim is someone who was expected to be a witness in the case against Mr. Wedding, who is believed to be in hiding in Mexico and is the subject of a US$10-million reward offered by the FBI.

A pair of bronze cylindrical sculptures, erected along Ontario’s Highway of Heroes, where military convoys carrying the remains of those killed in combat in Afghanistan once passed, were part of a plan to honour Canada’s war dead.

The roadside monuments, unveiled in 2022 outside ONroute rest stops on Highway 401 near Trenton and Port Hope, were called Presence in Absence and they included references to soldiers both living and dead. However, five living female veterans, whose names and silhouettes were used on the monuments, say the sculptures wrongly implied that they are among Canada’s fallen soldiers.