Should Ryan Wedding’s ‘cocaine lawyer’ get bail?

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Looking dapper in a blue-grey blazer and dark sweater, the lawyer for international drug kingpin Ryan Wedding, Deepak “cocaine lawyer” Paradkar, sat in the prisoner’s box in a downtown Toronto courthouse hoping for bail on Thursday.

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How the mighty have fallen.

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Usually arguing before the bench, the flashy lawyer who once told me he modelled himself after larger-than-life American attorneys like F. Lee Bailey and Johnny Cochran is now the one charged with shocking crimes in the U.S. that carry a mandatory life sentence on conviction, including allegations he counselled Wedding to murder a government witness in Colombia.

The now-bearded Paradkar, 62, was arrested Nov. 18 and is being held at Toronto East Detention Centre under an extradition warrant. His release plan includes $5 million pledged by himself and his wife Mandy Taylor Paradkar and $250,000 by her cousin, strict house arrest with GPS monitoring, surrender of his passport and no access to electronic devices.

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“He’s devoted himself to the criminal justice system and understands more than most the importance of complying with bail conditions,” his lawyer Ravin Pillay assured Superior Court Justice Peter Bawden.

The lawyer also assured the judge that Paradkar isn’t a flight or safety risk: the Canadian citizen is diabetic, has heart disease and high blood pressure, underwent quadruple heart bypass and wouldn’t put his life savings at risk or betray those closest to him – his wife of 32 years, a colon cancer survivor, and their two daughters, both lawyers.

“Too many of the individuals that are alleged in this drug trafficking organization have been taken down. The financial network has been dismantled. Key players are in custody. There is an enormous public publicity around this. The eyes on this case constrain any ability to commit further offences and indeed, to flee,” Pillay argued.

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“Mr. Paradkar is all over the media; I’m not sure how he goes anywhere without being noticed.”

Paradkar’s wife, a retired chartered accountant and paralegal, told the court they own a Thornhill home appraised at $5 million, a Muskoka cottage and have four leased cars – a Mercedes GLC and Maybach, a Maserati Ghibli and an MC 20 sports car valued at over $200,000.

“Deepak always had one sports car in our years together,” she said.

In fact, he incurred wrath from his fellow lawyers in 2017 when he posted a photo of his yellow Lamborghini on his cocaine_lawyer Instagram feed with the title “Cocaine pays lol!!!”

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She testified her husband was the main breadwinner with his law practice generating about $500,000 a year, they’ve travelled to Mexico twice in the last two years and in April they were robbed of about $300,000 in jewelry, designer purses and luxury watches, including his Cartier and Rolex.

She maintained none of those items came as gifts from Wedding.

Mandy Taylor Paradkar fought back tears as she agreed with federal Crown Milica Potrebic that it was devastating to learn of the allegations against her husband. But she was standing by her man.

“I believe in him and I believe in his innocence,” she said.

That trust might be misplaced.

Federal Crown attorney Heather Graham told the judge Paradkar’s reported income “does not accord” with his family’s champagne lifestyle.

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She alleged the lawyer is at the centre of the sophisticated drug enterprise headed by Wedding, a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder now turned fugitive, that moves hundreds of millions of dollars of drugs and cryptocurrency and will take violent action to protect its interests.

Paradkar is “integral” to these illegal activities, she said, and his insider role includes intelligence gathering, keeping track of courier identities “and of course the notorious allegation that he advised Mr. Wedding that murdering the CHS (confidential human source) would collapse the case against him.”

Court heard the federal witness was executed with five shots to the back of his head.

None of the allegations have been tested in Canadian courts, which will eventually rule on the extradition request.

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Graham alleged Paradkar is the recipient of Wedding’s “cash money drops” and luxury watches and now that he’s facing life in prison if convicted, he’ll draw on the global drug enterprise’s “extraordinary” resources to flee.

“What’s the alternative? To spend the rest of his life in an American prison,” she said.

Pillay had argued that even convicted murderers have been granted bail and there were no grounds – not a flight risk, safety risk, or in the public interest – to deny his client.

He’s not wrong – getting released on bail usually only requires a pulse.

But the federal Crown urged Bawden to hold him.

“This is one of the exceptional cases where detention is required,” she said.

The bail hearing continues Friday.

mmandel@postmedia.com

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