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Two years after the killing of a suspected drug trafficker in Niagara Falls, Ont. — purportedly targeted by a gunman hired by Ryan Wedding’s alleged criminal network — police are still trying to unlock the victim’s iPhone and identify at least one other suspect.
Investigators are also seeking to piece together how the homicide, allegedly carried out by a hitman known as Mr. Perfect, fits into a web of unsolved crimes suspected of being linked to the drug-trafficking organization allegedly led by Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder for Canada.
New details of the investigation into the 2024 shooting death of Randy Fader are contained in an affidavit signed last month by Niagara Regional Police Det.-Const. James Prinsen.
The eight-page document was recently released to CBC News after a reporter asked an Ontario court last year to unseal certain records related to the case.
“Due to the wide area that the Ryan Wedding organization operated in,” Prinsen wrote, “there are other criminal investigations that have been linked to Randy Fader’s murder.”
Fader, a 29-year-old father of two, was shot in the head in the driveway of his Niagara Falls home on the evening of April 1, 2024, by a gunman who had exited the rear driver’s side door of a white Audi Q7 SUV, according to police. Fader later died in hospital.
Although the suspected shooter, Malik Damion Cunningham, was arrested in Ontario, he was later charged in California with killing Fader. U.S. prosecutors alleged the killing was ordered by Wedding’s right-hand-man, fellow Canadian Andrew Clark, and carried out on behalf of their cartel-linked drug ring that used the Los Angeles area as a logistics hub.
“Drive over niagra blow this guys top off,” Clark is reported to have told Cunningham in an encrypted chat 14 days before the shooting. Clark allegedly promised the gunman $100,000, plus “expenses,” for the killing.
“Driveway job,” Clark wrote, according to court records.
Niagara police said they believe at least one other unidentified person was involved in the killing. According to the detective’s affidavit, investigators are looking into whether the firearm and Audi used in the homicide may also be linked to other crimes.
What’s more, they still haven’t managed to unlock Fader’s iPhone.
“I believe that once this phone is accessed, additional investigative leads will be generated which will assist in identifying the individuals responsible for Randy Fader’s murder,” Prinsen wrote.
As for the 24-year-old Cunningham, he remains in custody while fighting extradition to the United States.
His lawyer, Jassi Vamadevan, appeared in a downtown Toronto courtroom on Thursday to ask a judge to order more disclosure in the case, including the notes of at least nine Canadian officers, police body-worn camera video and CCTV images gathered in the investigation.
Prinsen has said releasing further evidence could compromise the investigation.
In court documents filed in Ontario as part of the extradition process, U.S. prosecutors have said Wedding’s organization paid for Cunningham to attend military-style training in Mexico and provided him with two Glock handguns and a green Ford Explorer with an Alberta licence plate.
According to court files, Cunningham was arrested in the Explorer, parked near the funeral of a homicide victim, in Vaughan, north of Toronto, two weeks after Fader’s killing.
Police said they seized 9-mm ammunition, four mobile phones and a Dollarama bag full of cash from the SUV.
Authorities have not outlined why they suspect Fader became a target of Wedding’s organization. The network allegedly moved 60 tonnes of cocaine a year through North America and purportedly eliminated rivals through an international network of hitmen.
U.S. prosecutors say a case of mistaken identity led to the deaths of the Indian couple killed in a 2023 targeting shooting north of Toronto, allegedly ordered by accused drug lord Ryan Wedding over a stolen cocaine shipment. They say Jagtar and Harbhajan Sidhu were ‘completely innocent.’
According to prosecutors in California, Fader “was known to Canadian law enforcement authorities to be involved in international drug trafficking.”
U.S. authorities have said Wedding’s network is linked to dozens of killings, including the mistaken-identity shooting of an Indian family in Caledon, Ont., and a Montreal-born FBI witness in Colombia. In both cases, the shooters have not been identified.
CBC News previously reported that Clark — Wedding’s purported second-in-command, who was arrested in Mexico in 2024 — turned FBI informant last year.
Wedding was also taken into U.S. custody in Mexico earlier this year and swiftly flown to California, where he pleaded not guilty to murder and drug-trafficking charges. He has not been charged in connection with Fader’s death.
