Ontario truckers used secret compartment to smuggle cocaine for fugitive Ryan Wedding

Iqbal Singh Virk and Ranjit Singh Rowal from the Toronto country ar the number one Canadians to ratify plea deals with U.S. Prosecutors followers 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 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."

Tracking the Canadian on the FBI's most wanted list

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