A Calgary resident accused of assisting alleged Canadian drug kingpin Ryan Wedding in orchestrating the killing of an FBI informant made a court appearance on Friday following his arrest on an extradition warrant three days earlier. Allistair Chapman, 33, was apprehended this week along with nine others as part of a significant FBI probe into an international drug trafficking network reportedly led by Wedding.
Wedding, the primary target of the investigation, is a former Team Canada Olympic snowboarder turned fugitive who is currently 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 largest cocaine supplier to Canada, operating across Mexico, Colombia, Canada, and the United States.
The case details were disclosed by FBI Director Kash Patel and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi during a joint press conference in Washington, D.C., alongside RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme. They unveiled the unsealed federal grand jury indictment outlining the accusations against Wedding and his associates, also announcing a $15 million US reward for information leading to Wedding’s capture.
Among the ten individuals arrested in connection with the case this week, seven are residing in Canada. Extradition proceedings will precede their prosecution in California. Chapman was taken into custody in Calgary on Tuesday after an extradition warrant was issued by a Quebec judge.
Appearing in court on Friday morning restrained and clad in a blue jail-issued jumpsuit, Chapman’s defense counsel Chad Haggerty and Department of Justice lawyer Colin LaRoche sought an adjournment of the proceedings until December 5, with no extradition hearing date set yet.
Chapman is facing charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to retaliate against a witness, and other organized crime offenses. U.S. authorities allege that besides cocaine trafficking, Chapman supplied a photo to Gursewak Singh Bal, the operator of The Dirty News website known for featuring crime-related information and photos. Bal, who is also facing charges, allegedly received $10,000 from Chapman to post the photo, leading to the victim being shot in the head five times at a restaurant in Colombia, three months after the image was published on The Dirty News.
A former player in the Alberta Junior Hockey League, Chapman was previously implicated in drug and firearms trafficking charges. In 2018, he was accused of leading a Calgary-based criminal group involved in cross-border drug and gun activities, linked to two murders, although no homicide charges were filed against him at that time. The 2018 charges against Chapman were dropped in 2020 due to trial delays as ruled by a judge.