‘Cocaine Lawyer’ at center of ex-Olympian turned drug kingpin case

Canadian Olympian turned drug kingpin Ryan Wedding was allegedly advised to eliminate an FBI witness by a man who was known as ‘cocaine lawyer.’

Deepak Balwant Paradkar, 62, a Canadian criminal defense attorney allegedly worked hand-in-hand with Wedding, an ex-Winter Olympics snowboarder, to try and thwart police efforts into his multi-billion-dollar cocaine trafficking operation. 

Paradkar, who is known as “Napoleon” for his tough courtroom antics, according to the Toronto Star, was arrested Tuesday and is awaiting extradition to the United States. 

Paradkar is accused of helping Wedding find out how authorities were able to intercept some of his cocaine shipments and trying to arrange new routes to evade further seizures. 

The lawyer allegedly reached out to law enforcement officers to find out how they foiled the shipments and advised Wedding and his team to take out FBI witness Jonathan Acabedo-Garcia in order to put an end to a federal investigation. 

Wedding allegedly released a photo of Garcia online resulting in his killing in Medellin, Colombia, in January 2025. 

According to the U.S. Attorney’s indictment, Paradkar’s alias’s included “cocaine_lawyer,” “Deepaj Emergency,” “Descartes,” and “[email protected].”

His instagram page, which was reviewed by the Toronto Star, 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 post featured police photos of seizes drugs and guns with the caption, ““100 kilos of K 4 kilos of cocaine, 5 guns, Uzi, glock — NOT GUILTY!”

At the time of the posts he was reprimanded by the Ontario Law Society for the inappropriate posts, according to the Toronto Star. 

“I treat trials like wars,” Paradkar told the Toronto Star in June 2013. “I’ve been emulating Napoleon since I was 16 because he came from nothing and became one of the great generals.”

Paradkar was born in India and moved to Canada at 7-years-old. He is the son of a Presbyterian minister and has said he was inspired by spiritual gurus like Deepakl Chopra, Anthony Robbins and Napoleon Hill. “I believe if you can see where you want to be in life, you shoot for the stars,” Paradkar told the Toranto Star. 

This is not the first time Paradkar participated in illegal activity with a client. He was slated to represent serial killer Dellen Millard but suddenly dropped off the case in 2016. Later it was revealed he unlawfully smuggled letters between Millard and his girlfriend with the intent to influence witnesses involved in the upcoming trial, according to Financial Express. 

Paradkar was one of ten defendants arrested Tuesday who allegedly worked with cartel to smuggle about 60 metric tons of cocaine a year from Colombia through Mexico and into California before it was moved into the U.S. and Canada.

Wedding is believed to be on the lam in Mexico and is currently on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. The reward for his capture is now up to $15 million dollars. 

“This week’s arrests underscore our resolve to root out and punish the wrongdoers involved in this criminal organization and serve as a warning for drug lord Ryan Wedding: If convicted, you will never see the outside of a prison ever again,”said United States Attorney Bill Essayli at a press conference.