When police approached a stolen SUV near the funeral of a suspected gang member in Vaughan, Ont., in April 2024, they couldn’t have expected it would help the FBI bring down a violent, transnational cocaine empire tied to the Sinaloa cartel.
Inside the 2023 Ford Explorer with heavily tinted windows, officers found Malik Damion Cunningham, an alleged rival gang member and hitman who U.S. prosecutors say had been hired, armed and trained by Ryan Wedding’s sprawling criminal enterprise.
More than two years after Cunningham’s arrest, new details about the circumstances of the police operation have emerged from search warrant documents recently unsealed by an Ontario court at the request of CBC News and the Toronto Star.
What appears to have been a chance encounter with local police near the funeral in the city just north of Toronto led officers to seize an iPhone that court documents suggest later provided the FBI with a trove of insight into the inner workings of Wedding’s network.
Wedding, who went by the aliases Public Enemy and Giant, was arrested in Mexico earlier this year. A former Team Canada Olympic snowboarder, he’s accused of leading the cartel-linked empire that smuggled truckloads of cocaine and fentanyl across North America and carried out dozens of killings.
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Wedding has pleaded not guilty in California to charges related to murder, drug trafficking and money laundering.
The allegations against Wedding and Cunningham have not been proven in court. Cunningham’s lawyer, Jassi Vamadevan, did not respond to a request for comment by CBC News on Wednesday.
The search warrant documents stem from a police investigation into the April 1, 2024, shooting death of 29-year-old Randy Fader in his Niagara Falls, Ont., driveway. Fader, described in court documents as an international drug trafficker who had met with “Mexican cartel people,” was shot in the head at the request of Wedding’s top lieutenant, according to U.S. prosecutors.
Cunningham, the alleged gunman nicknamed Mr. Perfect, is charged with murder in connection with Fader’s killing. Police suspect the now 25-year-old Cunningham was getting ready to carry out another “serious criminal act” when they arrested him outside the funeral in Vaughan.
The newly unsealed documents reveal the funeral back in April 2024 was for Ibrahim Abdikarim, an alleged member of the Go Getem Gang, based in Toronto’s Lawrence Heights neighbourhood. The 30-year-old was killed in an early-morning triple shooting that remains unsolved.
“I believe that Malik Cunningham was at this funeral for some sort of criminal purpose,” Niagara Regional Police Det.-Const. James Prinsen wrote later in April 2024, as he sought a search warrant connected to Randy Fader’s killing.
Prinsen said Cunningham was identified as a member of the Falstaff Crew — which was “in conflict with gangs from Lawrence Heights” — and had been captured on video purchasing binoculars, gloves and walkie-talkies.
Outside Abdikarim’s funeral, the Explorer with tinted windows had attracted attention when “the occupant of the vehicle was moving from the front to the back of the vehicle without exiting,” according to the Niagara Region detective.
When officers searched a Canadian police database, they found that the SUV with an Alberta licence plate had been reported stolen. U.S. prosecutors would later allege the Explorer had been provided to Cunningham by Wedding’s network as a getaway vehicle.
In the SUV, police said they seized seven Luger bullets — the same type of 9mm ammunition retrieved at the Niagara Falls homicide scene — as well as four smartphones and a Dollarama bag filled with $150,000 in cash.
Investigators would later find that one of the devices contained encrypted messages between Cunningham and Wedding’s alleged right-hand man, fellow Canadian Andrew Clark, according to court documents.
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“Drive over niagra blow this guys top off,” Clark is reported to have written on March 18, 2024, apparently in reference to Fader.
Clark allegedly offered Cunningham $100,000, plus “expenses,” for the killing, and named a series of other targets.
U.S. authorities have alleged Wedding’s drug ring used a network of contract killers — or “sicarios” — in multiple countries to eliminate rivals or even their loved ones.
Clark’s hit list also allegedly included “a realtor in Van,” “some Arabs” and “‘a Mexi’ who owned a restaurant and his wife,” according to evidence from U.S. prosecutors filed in a Toronto court as they sought to extradite several Canadians, including Cunningham.
U.S. authorities also alleged Clark arranged for Cunningham to receive “military training” in Mexico in 2024, and discussed “procuring grenade launchers and firearms.”
Before authorities could find Wedding, Clark was captured in Mexico in October 2024. He was later taken into U.S. custody and flown to California to face federal charges. He has pleaded not guilty.
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Within months, Clark turned FBI informant and helped investigators to dismantle Wedding’s alleged network.
Cunningham remains in custody in Ontario as he fights extradition to the U.S.
CBC News senior reporter Thomas Daigle has extensively covered the case of Canadian alleged drug lord Ryan Wedding. He can be reached by email at [email protected].
