Is there a connection between Ryan Wedding and Project South?
An alleged drug trafficker’s bail conditions have raised the question
There’s a new and unsettling twist in the Project South saga.
Police announced last month that, following a major investigation, numerous Toronto officers had been arrested on charges relating to organized crime and corruption.
Related: The story of Ryan Wedding, Canada’s Olympic snowboarder turned drug lord
Now, as reported by the CBC, Brian Da Costa, an alleged drug trafficker accused of bribing Toronto police officers, has been given a list of people he is not allowed to contact as part of his bail conditions—and on that list is a co-accused of alleged drug lord Ryan Wedding, the former Olympic snowboarder who was on the FBI’s Most Wanted list until his January arrest.
The Wedding co-accused is Gurpreet Singh, who is alleged to have been an accomplice in the allegations against Wedding. The charges against Wedding include murder and drug trafficking. It remains unclear how Singh and Da Costa were potentially connected.
US investigators say Singh coordinated shipments of more than 650 kilograms of cocaine, which were moved from California to Canada as part of Wedding’s network. Singh has remained in police custody since his arrest. His lawyer emphasized to the CBC that he is not currently facing charges related to Project South.
Yesterday, Da Costa was granted bail for $1.5 million, and he is now under house arrest. He faces 16 charges related to Project South, including bribing a peace officer, trafficking drugs and police uniforms, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Related: A GTA police officer is accused of trafficking official police uniforms
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
