Paradkar advised Wedding and his team to eliminate FBI witness
A Canadian criminal defence lawyer allegedly advised an Olympian turned drug kingpin to kill an FBI witness.
Deepak Balwant Paradkar allegedly worked closely with Ryan Wedding, an ex-Winter Olympics snowboarder, to try and thwart police efforts into his multi-billion-dollar cocaine trafficking operation.
Paradkar has been arrested and is awaiting extradition to the United States.
Authorities say Paradkar helped Wedding understand how police intercepted major cocaine shipments and tried to organise new routes to avoid further seizures.
Prosecutors allege he reached out to law enforcement officers to learn how authorities foiled the deliveries.
Investigators also say Paradkar advised Wedding and his team to eliminate FBI witness Jonathan Acabedo-Garcia to shut down the expanding probe.
Wedding allegedly released a photograph of Acabedo-Garcia online. The witness was subsequently murdered in Medellin, Colombia, in January 2025.
The US Attorney’s indictment lists several aliases attributed to Paradkar.
These included “cocaine_lawyer,” “Deepaj Emergency,” “Descartes,” and “[email protected]”.
Paradkar’s public persona has long attracted attention in Canada. He became known as “Napoleon” for his aggressive courtroom tactics.
In 2013, he said: “I treat trials like wars.
“I’ve been emulating Napoleon since I was 16 because he came from nothing and became one of the great generals.”
His Instagram page was taken down in 2017, but boasted of his admiration for cocaine.
In one post Paradkar showed off a photo of his yellow Lamborghini with a caption that read, “cocaine pays lol!!!”
Another showed police photographs of seized drugs and guns with the caption “100 kilos of K 4 kilos of cocaine, 5 guns, Uzi, glock – NOT GUILTY!”
He was reprimanded by the Ontario Law Society for the posts.
Paradkar was born in India and moved to Canada at seven.
This is not the first time he has been linked to alleged wrongdoing involving a client.
He was supposed to represent serial killer Dellen Millard but abruptly withdrew in 2016. It was later revealed that he had unlawfully smuggled letters between Millard and his girlfriend to influence witnesses in the upcoming trial.
Paradkar was one of 10 defendants arrested, who allegedly worked with cartel groups to smuggle about 60 metric tons of cocaine a year from Colombia through Mexico and into California before distribution across the United States and Canada.
Ryan Wedding is believed to be on the run in Mexico and has been placed on the FBI Most Wanted List. The reward for his capture now stands at $15 million.
United States Attorney Bill Essayli said: “This week’s arrests underscore our resolve to root out and punish the wrongdoers involved in this criminal organisation and serve as a warning for drug lord Ryan Wedding: If convicted, you will never see the outside of a prison ever again.”
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