In them, investigators zero in on alleged hit man Malik Cunningham, the Toronto man now accused of murdering Fader on behalf of the network linked to Wedding, the ex-Olympic snowboarder facing sweeping U.S. charges as the alleged head of a murderous cocaine empire.

And, the documents say, Cunningham may have been stopped in the middle of plotting another violent crime against his rivals.

ITOs contain the sworn statements of investigators seeking judicial authorization to conduct searches. They include unproven allegations that represent what police believed at that moment in time. The Star has previously reported on later developments in the Cunningham case, including his alleged text exchanges with Wedding’s right-hand man over a “hit list” of targets.

On April 14, 2024, York police officers spotted Cunningham in a stolen Ford Explorer, staking out a funeral for a homicide victim tied to the GGG gang. The York officers had no idea Cunningham allegedly killed Fader just two weeks earlier; Niagara investigators, meanwhile, were closing in on that same vehicle.

According to the filings, York police discovered Cunningham with $150,000 in cash, seven rounds of 9 mm, binoculars, gloves, walkie-talkies and four cell phones.

The ITO covers the police request to search the Ford Explorer and Cunningham’s phones, including a single white iPhone that contained a trove of evidence allegedly linking him to Fader’s murder and Wedding’s second-in-command, turned confidential witness, Andrew Clark.

Why exactly Cunningham was at the funeral for shooting victim Ibrahim Abdikarim, the documents do not speculate, except to say officers believe “the York Regional Police Service may have stopped a serious criminal act from taking place by placing Malik Cunningham under arrest.”

They had good reason to believe it. Cunningham was previously convicted of attempted murder for shooting a Lawrence Heights man from point-blank range in apparent retaliation for a murder in his Jane-Falstaff community.

Ultimately, following the April 2024 stop, Cunningham was charged merely with possession of the proceeds of crime and possession of the ammunition.

But his arrest soon set off a race against time.

On April 1, 2024, a gunman allegedly drove a white Audi Q7 to Niagara Falls and pulled into a school parking lot across from Fader’s home. Investigators believe he stayed there for more than three hours, waiting to lay eyes on his target.

At 5:11 p.m., surveillance footage captured the Audi driving the wrong way on Fader’s one-way residential street — what police believe may be the “first attempt” to kill Fader.

At around 6:19 p.m., just as Fader approached a friend’s car in the driveway, the Audi Q7 pulled up to the house, the ITO reads. It says the shooter got out of the car, ran up to Fader and shot him point-blank in the head.

Niagara police hadn’t yet identified Cunningham as the shooter at the time of the ITO, but believed he was involved in what they called a deliberate and co-ordinated attack.

U.S. prosecutors have since alleged Fader was first on a murder list Cunningham received from Wedding’s organization, through Clark. The documents allege Clark specifically instructed Cunningham to make it a “driveway job.”

Had it not been for the stop at the unrelated funeral two weeks later, the FBI may not have obtained key evidence in their case against Wedding and Clark.

Court records show Cunningham pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the funeral stop remarkably swiftly — a little over a month after his arrest.

That plea that came soon after Cunningham secured the services of a new lawyer: Paradkar.

On May 28, 2024, Ontario Court of Justice Mary Misener presided over Cunningham’s sentencing, aware only of the circumstances surrounding the funeral stop — not the Fader murder.

Behind the scenes, Niagara police were still in the early days of investigating that white iPhone, collecting the evidence that would eventually link Cunningham to the killing and help take down Wedding.

While the Crown sought an 18-month sentence, Paradkar pushed to get his client out of jail much sooner. He requested just 90 days in custody, stressing that Cunningham had been raised by a single mother and subjected to systemic racism and bullying throughout his childhood. His aunt would offer him work, including home renovations and helping with her epilepsy, Paradkar told the court.

When Misener asked if Cunningham wished to speak before she sentenced him, he initially stammered, “Uhm,” before saying, “I want to help my aunt.”

He said he was looking into obtaining his HVAC license, but needed to finish his high school credits first.

Misener encouraged him to then apply to a college. “The whole world is stacked against you,” she said. “There’s a little ladder out of it, if you want to take those opportunities.”

The judge stressed: “Because you are only 23, there’s a real chance that when you’re released you are going to be back into the streets and the gangs and the guns and all that … But it’s breaking your mother’s heart, and you’re going to end up either in a coffin or in the pen, which are not attractive options from where I am sitting.”

Cunningham chimed in. “Definitely not.”

Ultimately, Misener sentenced him to 90 days.

“That’s going to get you out of custody very soon,” she told him. “In sufficient time for you to enrol in Grade 12. So I don’t want you to tell any judge later on that it wasn’t anybody’s fault except your own if you don’t get onto the right track.”

Cunningham was released by September. By mid-October 2024, he was charged by the FBI with Fader’s murder and is now back behind bars. 

A year after those charges were laid, Paradkar was himself charged in the Ryan Wedding case. Authorities allege he was a “senior operative” in Wedding’s criminal enterprise who introduced the former Olympian to drug couriers; investigated the seizure of his drug shipments; and paid lawyers to investigate whether insiders were co-operating with law enforcement.

The most serious charge is that Paradkar conspired with others to murder a confidential source who was working with authorities. That witness was gunned down in Colombia in January 2025.

Before his arrest, Paradkar was well-known for his social media presence under the handle @cocaine_lawyer — a name prosecutors claim he went by within Wedding’s circle. He was granted bail in December ahead of his extradition hearing.

His lawyer, Ravin Pillay, has denied all of the accusations on his behalf. Pillay did not respond to the Star’s request for comment on Wednesday. 

The ITO documents contain no new allegations of wrongdoing against Paradkar.

Neither prosecutors nor authorities have shared an explicit motive in Fader’s killing, but court records suggest it may have been related to a drug debt.

In police statements after the murder, family members and associates described Fader as a private person who kept work and personal life separate.

According to the ITO, his father told police Fader used to broker marijuana internationally — storing it in furniture and microwaves — and that he met “Mexican cartel people,” though he wasn’t sure if that was for business or social reasons.

Fader’s mother, meanwhile, told police her son had travelled to Dubai and Spain for the “drug and oil” trade, according to the documents.

In multiple interviews, police heard Fader allegedly owed $100,000 to a group identified in records only as “the Russians.”

According to the ITO, Cunningham didn’t act alone. Investigators said they determined the homicide involved at least three vehicles. 

Using surveillance footage, police established a minute-by-minute timeline of the suspect white Audi Q7’s movements, tracing it from the murder scene in Niagara to a Toronto street where a Ford Explorer had already been parked for hours.

The Audi driver pulled in behind that Ford and also met up with a white sedan. Police describe seeing at least two people interact on the street before the three cars left together.

Cunningham’s criminal involvement in the Jane-Falstaff/Lawrence Heights gang war began almost as soon as he was an adult. Two weeks after Cunningham’s 18th birthday, a 16-year-old boy was murdered in a stairwell of their Falstaff Avenue apartment complex.

Days later, on Aug. 5, 2019, Cunningham and two others drove to Lawrence Heights for revenge. There, Cunningham chased a man down the street before shooting him in the head from a few feet away.

He was ultimately sentenced to six-and-a-half years for attempted murder. The sentence was significantly reduced for time served in harsh conditions at the Toronto South jail, and he was out by January 2024. 

Flash forward a few months — past the murder of Randy Fader and Cunningham’s arrest — to May 2024, and the judge gave him one final warning before sending him away yet again on the funeral charges.

“If you prove me wrong,” Misener told him, “I’m still going to get paid. I’m still going to go home. I still have my life.”

Looking at Cunningham, she said: “You will have destroyed your life. You will have broken the heart of your mother. And you will create more victims.”

Niagara police have said the investigation into Randy Fader’s murder remains active.

It’s unknown whether Cunningham ever returned to high school after serving his 90-day sentence.