Indo-Canadians Hardeep Ratte, Gurpreet Singh, Ranjit Singh Rowal and Iqbal Singh Virk arrested
THE RCMP announced on Thursday that they and the FBI worked together for over a year to target a Mexican Cartel-linked criminal network that has been moving large amounts of methamphetamine and cocaine from Central and South America via the United States to Canada and overseas.
The criminal network has also been commissioning murders across North America, and laundering significant proceeds of crime.
Enforcement action against the network began in Mexico earlier this month and continued this week with targeted arrests in Colombia, the United States, and Canada. These efforts are ongoing.
The alleged leader of the network, Canadian Ryan Wedding, remains at large. He is wanted by the United States and Canada on separate charges. Wedding competed for Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, U.S.
“As alleged in the indictment, an Olympic athlete-turned-drug lord [Wedding] is now charged with leading a transnational organized crime group that engaged in cocaine trafficking and murder, including of innocent civilians,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada in Los Angeles.
As part of FBI Operation Giant Slalom, US authorities indicted 16 people, including 10 Canadians, for a range of serious charges including drug trafficking, murder, conspiracy to murder and continuing a criminal enterprise.
Four Canadians were arrested in Ontario this week by local Canadian law enforcement at the request of United States authorities, pending extradition. They were:
- Hardeep Ratte
- Gurpreet Singh
- Rakhim Ibragimov
- Malik Cunningham
Three Canadian individuals were also arrested in the US:
- Nahim Jorge Bonilla
- Ranjit Singh Rowal
- Iqbal Singh Virk
A ninth Canadian, Andrew Clark, was arrested in Mexico by local authorities earlier this month as part of efforts against this network.
A tenth Canadian, Gennadii Bilonog, remains at large.
Along with the indictments, law enforcement seized over one tonne of drugs and collected evidence on numerous homicides and conspiracies to commit murder.
RCMP Federal Policing worked closely with the FBI during the investigation and acted as a crucial link to Canadian law enforcement, including Niagara Regional Police, Ontario Provincial Police, Toronto Police Service and Peel Regional Police.
A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Central District of California said that the leaders of the drug trafficking operation “conspired to ship bulk quantities of cocaine – weighing hundreds of kilograms – from Southern California to Canada through a Canada-based drug transportation network run by Hardeep Ratte, 45, of Ontario, Canada, and Gurpreet Singh, 30, of Ontario, Canada, from approximately January 2024 to August 2024.”
The release also stated: “The organization resorted to violence – including multiple murders – to achieve its aims. Wedding and [Andrew] Clark allegedly directed the November 20, 2023, murders of two members of a family in Ontario, Canada, in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment that passed through Southern California. Another member of that family survived the shooting but was left with serious physical injuries. Wedding and Clark allegedly also ordered the murder of another victim on May 18, 2024, over a drug debt. Clark and Malik Damion Cunningham, 23, a resident of Canada, are charged with the April 1, 2024, murder of another victim in Ontario, Canada.”
The Globe and Mail reported that Ontario Provincial Police Deputy Commissioner Marty Kearns, speaking to reporters in Los Angeles, identified the mistaken-identity victims killed last November as a couple residing in Ontario’s Caledon municipality – Jagtar Singh, 57, and his wife Harbhajan Kaur Sidhu, 55. Their adult daughter, who was also shot, survived.
Kearns said: “I want to stress that the family was completely innocent,” adding that the family was “mistakenly targeted and were not involved in the alleged trafficking organization.”
Photo: GoFundMe Page
The U.S. Attorney’s Office press release stated: “During the investigation, law enforcement has seized more than one ton of cocaine, three firearms, dozens of rounds of ammunition, $255,400 in United States currency, and more than $3.2 million in cryptocurrency. According to the superseding indictment, in March 2024, the organization delivered a total of approximately 293 kilograms (646 pounds) of cocaine to representatives of Ratte and Singh for eventual shipment to and distribution in Canada. The following month, the organization attempted to deliver approximately 375.1 kilograms (827 pounds) of cocaine to representatives of Ratte and Singh for eventual transportation to Canada, but investigators interrupted the delivery and seized the cocaine. In total, several defendants possessed a total of approximately 1,800 kilograms (1.8 metric tons) of cocaine, according to the superseding indictment. One-thousand eight hundred kilograms of cocaine carries a street value between $23.4 and $25.2 million dollars in Los Angeles.”
Any member of the public with information on the whereabouts of Gennadii Bilonog is asked to call their local police or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
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