The Toronto man identified as a “chief money launderer” for fugitive Ryan Wedding tried to flee to the Bahamas before his recent arrest, according to U.S. prosecutors.
What’s more, they allege it was the FBI’s seizure of an ultra-rare Mercedes — purportedly purchased on Wedding’s behalf — that prompted Rolan Sokolovski to leave Canada in a hurry.
Sokolovski, 37, is asking an Ontario court to release him on bail while he faces extradition to the United States on conspiracy charges related to money laundering and cocaine trafficking. The jeweller and former professional poker player appeared before a judge in a downtown Toronto courtroom on Wednesday for a third straight day.
The new allegations are contained in a letter from Los Angeles-based assistant U.S. attorneys Lyndsi Allsop and Kenneth R. Carbajal, who claim Sokolovski is a flight risk and that he “poses a danger to the community” as a member of Wedding’s purported murderous drug ring.
Wedding, a one-time Team Canada Olympic snowboarder, is accused of running a transnational criminal enterprise that smuggled 60 tonnes of cocaine a year from Mexico to California, then onto other cities in the U.S. and Canada. Wedding is listed as one of the FBI’s 10 most-wanted fugitives.
Prosecutors said Sokolovski acted as the “de facto bank” for the criminal network while laundering hundreds of millions of dollars within about a year, including through cryptocurrency transactions.
“In October 2025, following the seizure of a $13-million-dollar vehicle by U.S. authorities in Florida that Sokolovski procured for Wedding, Sokolovski attempted to flee to the Bahamas to avoid law enforcement detection,” Allsop and Carbajal wrote.
Lawyers representing the Attorney General of Canada are opposing Sokolovski’s bail request but said they would not rely on the U.S. claim that he sought to flee the country.
Accused drug kingpin Ryan Wedding still a threat in Canada, RCMP say
Documents released to the media by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Tuesday — among nearly 800 pages of bail exhibits — show an Oct. 19 booking for an Air Canada flight to the Bahamian capital.
The airline issued tickets to Sokolovski and a woman to fly from Toronto to Nassau on Nov. 9, with a return flight booked for Nov. 16.
The Lithuanian-born Sokolovski was arrested on Nov. 18, part of the FBI and RCMP’s co-ordinated takedown of Wedding’s alleged associates in multiple countries.
“I didn’t get to enjoy a vacation,” Sokolovski testified at his bail hearing this week when asked about the trip to the Bahamas. Instead, the court was told that immigration officials turned away Sokolovski and the woman, whose identity is covered by a publication ban.
“We can’t let you into the Bahamas,” she testified an officer told Sokolovski, before the pair were put on the next flight back to Canada.
Earlier in November, U.S. federal agents in Miami seized a 2002 Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR Roadster as part of the investigation into Wedding’s network. The FBI said the car — one of only six ever made — was worth $13 million US.
CBC News reported that Sokolovski signed an agreement in August 2024 to buy the roofless supercar previously owned by the royal family of Abu Dhabi and coveted by Drake.
The Mercedes appeared to fit into what the U.S. Treasury Department recently described as a “complex web” of global assets, including cars, motorcycles and properties, used to launder Wedding’s vast sums of drug money.
Last month, Mexican authorities said they seized 62 high-end motorbikes amid co-ordinated raids on four addresses linked to Wedding in and around Mexico City. The FBI said the motorcycles — including authentic MotoGP machines used in professional races — were estimated to be worth $40 million US.
The bikes appeared similar to those displayed on the website of Stile Italiano, an Italy-based high-end motorcycle brokerage owned by Gianluca Tiepolo, identified by the U.S. Treasury Department as Wedding’s other chief money launderer.
Reached by phone, Tiepolo declined to say whether he had procured the bikes for Wedding. He told CBC News that the Treasury Department’s allegations are a “total mistake.”
U.S. authorities have also said Tiepolo, a 50-year-old former Italian special forces member, founded Windrose Tactical Solutions, a firm that operated “military-style tactical training camps that have trained many of Wedding’s hitmen.”
The Treasury Department slapped sanctions on Tiepolo and eight other alleged Wedding associates in November, effectively cutting them off from the U.S. financial system.
Sokolovski’s bail hearing is scheduled to resume on Jan. 21. The allegations against him have not been proven in court.
His lawyer, Scott Fenton, said there’s no risk his client will flee or commit any offences if he’s released on bail. Sokolovski’s release plan involves living on house arrest under the supervision of three sureties, with a fourth living nearby. Sokolovski has also pledged $2 million.
Allsop and Carbajal, the U.S. prosecutors, warned against Sokolovski’s release, arguing he “has tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency and physical assets at his disposal.”
Earlier this week, Ontario Superior Court Justice Peter Bawden agreed with the defence’s request to issue a publication ban on the identities of Sokolovski’s proposed sureties out of fear for their safety.
Wedding’s organization has been linked to dozens of murders, including the assassination of an FBI witness in Colombia last year and the November 2023 shooting of a family in Caledon, Ont., mistakenly targeted over a stolen cocaine shipment.
Despite more than 30 of Wedding’s alleged associates being indicted, his drug ring still poses a risk of violence, Supt. Marie Eve Lavallée of the RCMP’s Eastern Region organized crime program said in an interview this week.
“His network remains a threat for Canadian public safety,” she said.
CBC News senior reporter Thomas Daigle has extensively covered the search for Ryan Wedding. He can be reached by email at [email protected].
