Man accused of aiding Canadian Olympian's alleged drug network set for U.S. extradition
Wearing a blue sweatshirt, Rakhim Ibragimov looked relaxed and smiled at a woman sitting in the gallery of the downtown Toronto courtroom, as his lawyer Harval Bassi told Superior Court Justice Peter Bawden that Igragimov would be waiving his right to an extradition hearing.
In October 2024, Ibragimov and three other Canadians were arrested by Canadian law enforcement at the request of United States authorities for their roles in an alleged drug-smuggling network linked to the Mexican Cartel.
The alleged leader of the network, former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan James Wedding, remains at large and is on the list of the top 10 most wanted fugitives by the FBI. In March, the FBI also announced up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Wedding, who participated in the giant slalom snowboarding event for Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is last known to be residing in Mexico.
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Kieran Gill, prosecutor for the attorney general of Canada told court that Ibragimov is wanted by the United States in relation to his role as 'a courier' on behalf of the drug transportation network. Gill said it's alleged that Ibragimov worked with individuals based out of Mexico including Wedding and Andrew Clark, another Canadian who was arrested in Mexico last October.
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'He (Ibragimov) was arrested om April 9, 2024, while transporting 330 kg of cocaine from Wedding's courier into his vehicle,' Gill told Bawden in her synopsis of the allegations. 'That's his role in the large conspiracy to move cocaine from the US into Canada.'
As part of FBI Operation Giant Slalom, U.S. 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.
At the time of the arrests, the U.S. Attorney's Office in California said the defendants were charged with allegedly running and participating in a transnational drug trafficking operation that routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Columbia, through Mexico and Southern California, to Canada and other locations in the United States. It also alleged the drug network's 'leaders orchestrated multiple murders in furtherance of these drug crimes.'
It's alleged that Wedding, Clark and others 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, and Gurpreet Singh, 30, both from Ontario, from approximately January 2024 to August 2024.
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'The cocaine shipments were transported from Mexico to the Los Angeles area, where the cocaine trafficking organization's operatives would store the cocaine in stash houses, before delivering it to the transportation network couriers for transportation to Canada using long-haul semi-trucks,' said the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Wedding and Clark allegedly directed the Nov. 20, 2023 murders of a Jagtar Singh Sidhu, 57 and Harbhajan Kaur Sidhu, 55 in Caledon, Ont. Their daughter was also shot but survived, suffering serious physical injuries. According to U.S. officials, the murders were in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment that passed through southern Ontario. When the charges were announced, the OPP said the victims were not involved in drug trafficking and were 'completely innocent'.
Wedding and Clark allegedly also ordered the murder of another victim on May 18, 2024, over a drug debt. Peel police said the victim was a 39-year-old man from Brampton.
Clark and Malik Damion Cunningham, 23, another Canadian, are also charged with the April 1, 2024, murder of Randy Fader, a Niagara Falls man who was gunned down outside his home.
Ratte began a bail hearing in January but it was never completed. An extradition hearing has yet to be set for him.
Gurpreet Singh was denied bail in February. His extradition hearing has yet to be scheduled along with an extradition hearing for Cunningham.
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Canada's justice minister, Sean Fraser, must now ask for a surrender order so that Ibragimov can be sent to California, which could happen at any time. It's there he will stand trial on drug trafficking charges.
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