A two-day bail hearing has been scheduled for a Calgary man accused of helping alleged Canadian drug lord Ryan Wedding arrange the murder of an FBI informant.
Allistair Chapman, 33, and nine others were arrested last year in an FBI investigation into the international drug trafficking organization allegedly run by Wedding.
A lawyer appeared in a Calgary courtroom on Chapman’s behalf on Friday.
He confirmed that Chapman, who is also a former player in the Alberta Junior Hockey League, is still in custody.
The judge set a bail hearing for Feb. 4 and 5 and ordered that Chapman appear in court in person at that time.
“It’s going to be an uphill battle for Chapman to get bail,” said Doug King, professor of Justice Studies at Mount Royal University in Calgary. “Under Section 469 of the Criminal Code of Canada, there are a group of offences that if you’re charged, you as the accused have the obligation to argue why you should get bail. For every other kind of offences, (it’s) automatically assumed that you’re going to get bail.”
The date for an extradition hearing to the United States has not yet been set.
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“It could be that Canada will elect to want to try Mr. Chapman first before extraditing him,” said King. “Or Canada could say, no, we’re OK if you request him to return to the United States first.”
If Chapman is ordered extradited to the U.S., he will also have the option to appeal that order.
Whether or not he could face the death penalty in the U.S., King said, could also have an impact on whether Canada will allow his extradition.
Chapman is charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to retaliate against a witness and other organized crime offences.
“My sense is, everything else being equal, Mr. Chapman is going to want to face Canadian justice first,” added King. “When you end up being extradited to the United States, you’re walking into a completely different judicial system, very different correctional systems.”
On Friday, the FBI also announced that Chapman’s reputed boss, Ryan Wedding, who is a former Team Canada Olympic snowboarder-turned-fugitive, had been arrested after he turned himself into authorities at the U.S. embassy in Mexico City.
With files from Global News.
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