A man from Calgary accused of aiding alleged Canadian drug kingpin Ryan Wedding in orchestrating the murder of an FBI informant made a court appearance on Friday, following his arrest on an extradition warrant three days prior. Allistair Chapman, 33, was among ten individuals apprehended this week in connection with a significant FBI probe into an international drug trafficking syndicate reportedly led by Wedding.
Wedding, the prime focus of the investigation, is a former Team Canada Olympic snowboarder turned fugitive, currently listed on the FBI’s top 10 most wanted list and believed to be residing in Mexico. Chapman is implicated as a member of the “Wedding Criminal Enterprise,” identified in the indictment as the principal cocaine supplier to Canada, with operations spanning Mexico, Colombia, Canada, and the United States.
FBI Director Kash Patel and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, in collaboration with RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme, disclosed details of the case at a joint press conference in Washington, D.C., unveiling the unsealed federal grand jury indictment outlining the accusations against Wedding and his cohorts. The authorities also announced a $15 million US reward for information leading to Wedding’s apprehension.
Out of the ten individuals detained this week in relation to the case, seven are Canadian residents. Extradition proceedings will precede their prosecution in California. Chapman was taken into custody in Calgary on Tuesday subsequent to the authorization of an extradition warrant by a Quebec judge.
Appearing in court on Friday morning, Chapman was shackled and attired in a blue jail-issued jumpsuit, accompanied by defense counsel Chad Haggerty and Department of Justice attorney Colin LaRoche before Court of King’s Bench Justice Lisa Silver, who postponed the proceedings to December 5. A specific date for his extradition hearing is yet to be confirmed.
Chapman is facing charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to retaliate against a witness, and additional organized crime offenses. According to U.S. authorities, apart from involvement in cocaine trafficking, Chapman allegedly provided a photograph to Gursewak Singh Bal, the operator of The Dirty News website known for featuring crime-related content, in exchange for $10,000 to post the photo. The indictment states that Chapman supplied Bal with the image of a victim, leading to the victim being shot five times in the head at a restaurant in Colombia.
A former player in the Alberta Junior Hockey League, Chapman was previously implicated in drug and firearms trafficking. In 2018, he faced charges linked to leading a Calgary-based organized crime group engaged in cross-border drug and weapon trade. Although the group was associated with two homicides, Chapman was not accused of any murder-related offenses at that time. The 2018 charges against Chapman were dropped in 2020 following a ruling that the case had been excessively delayed for trial.