The attempted attack on a Toronto prison guard was linked to a local crime ring, documents show

This article is one part of Global News’ ongoing coverage investigating alleged Toronto police corruption. More stories about Project South are available here.

Toronto’s most notorious network of crime stories – from allegedly corrupt cops to major drug dealers and gun-for-hire rings – may all be connected to Project South, according to a detailed investigative theory from York Regional Police detectives based on call intercepts, listening devices and searches.

New documents chronicling evidence collected by investigators in a massive police corruption probe expose alleged ties between key players in overlapping criminal probes ranging from Toronto to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States.

Although the essence of the document was widely publicized when police announced the arrests at Project South in February, the new pages offer a new level of detail.

This was made public after a consortium of media companies, including Global News, asked the court to unseal hundreds of pages of evidence.

Information Required to Obtain, or ITO, is written testimony that police must provide to a judge to obtain a search warrant. The contents are only based on initial police observations.

Most of the documents remain under a publication ban challenged by the media consortium.

The now partially unsealed ITO was installed by York Regional Police in February 2026 when detectives sought permission from a judge to conduct a series of nighttime raids, searching vehicles and homes for electronic devices, cash and other documents.

They lay out how officers believe the plot to “cause serious injury or death” to a Toronto prison worker has links to former Olympian and alleged drug lord Ryan Wedding, a network of potential gun renters, and allegedly corrupt officers in the Toronto Police Service.

None of the links described in police documents have been proven. It is based on evidence, such as wiretaps or recording devices, that has not been heard and assessed by a judge or jury.

Project South, the name for a massive corruption probe led by York Regional Police, began after officers began investigating a shooting at the home of a correctional worker in suburban Ontario.

Speaking at a press conference in February, Deputy Chief Ryan Hogan said the investigation began in June 2025 when investigators alleged a conspiracy to murder a man who worked at an Ontario correctional facility.

Hogan said over the course of 36 hours, several suspects went to the man’s York Region home at least three times, “we allege with the intent to kill him.” He said video surveillance showed a masked and armed suspect entering the home, and at one point, ramming a police car that was in the driveway.

Police concluded that the incident targeted a correctional worker at the Toronto South Detention Centre.

According to the documents, the guard told police he was unpopular with “most of the inmates” at the prison where he worked. He named several people who he said had reason to harm him, including a man named Gurpreet Singh, who was being held at the facility awaiting extradition to the United States.

Singh was arrested on October 16, 2024, and is wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration in the United States.

According to the ITO, Singh’s extradition order stems from allegations of “conspiracy and drug-related charges arising from the FBI and DEA’s investigation into Ryan Wedding’s international drug trafficking.”

US authorities have described Wedding as a “modern-day Pablo Escobar,” allegedly in charge of a smuggling empire that raked in more than $1 billion a year in illegal drug sales.

Police documents allege Singh “had a motive” to harm correctional workers and “had ties” to three people allegedly involved in the attempted murder.

Singh has not been charged in Project South, and none of the allegations in the document have been tested in court.

“The fact that Mr. Singh has not been charged with any offense in Canada more than four months after the execution of the arrest warrant is the clearest response to the allegations contained in the information obtained,” Brian Greenspan, Singh’s lawyer, wrote in an email to Global News.

Exactly how investigators allege Singh may have been connected to some of the people charged under Project South remains under publication ban.

When police investigated an alleged attack on a prison guard’s home in June last year, they began collecting evidence.

The first clue emerged when investigators searched the prison guard’s license plate to gather information about the victim for their investigation.

According to the documents, a Ministry of Transportation database shows a Toronto police officer charged in Project South had searched the same license plate late the previous month.

The documents show that Project South began to focus its attention on Singh as it progressed, and how he could be linked to events in York Region.

Investigators began questioning another prison guard, Nishwant Dosanjh, who they believed had ties to Singh.

Police allege he took a photo of his partner’s license plate in the correctional facility’s parking lot.

They theorize that he then gave the picture to Singh.

“The relationship between Dosanjh and Singh suggests an opportunity and motive to facilitate access to sensitive information and contraband,” the ITO claimed.

“Further investigative findings support that license plate information was disseminated through Singh’s associates, ultimately resulting in unlawful database requests,” the document states.

Dosanjh’s lawyer said his client “denies any allegations of criminal or professional misconduct and categorically maintains his innocence.”

He added that Dosanh “cooperated fully” with the police investigation and had been on paid leave since February when his lawyer said he came forward with the allegations against his partner.

“Ms. Dosanjh was identified as a person of interest in the Project South investigation. She has cooperated fully with investigators, including by providing investigators with unrestricted access to the contents of the cell phone confiscated from her residence,” the statement continued.

“Ms. Dosanjh has not been criminally charged, and there is no indication criminal charges will be filed.”

The documents include few references to a potential arms rental network that might somehow be connected to Project South.

The documents include details about how a person charged with conspiracy to commit murder as part of Project South allegedly engaged in “criminal vehicle” text conversations, as well as “discussions about forming a team for a job and a firearm.”

The conversations and other details, which also allegedly involved the use of code names, are all covered by a publication ban.

Armed groups using encrypted messaging apps to organize criminal acts and get paid for them is a phenomenon that Toronto police have recently feared is on the rise in the city.

This year, Toronto police accused Signal of being used to order and orchestrate shootings like the one at the United States Consulate in March, and other shootings involving the waste collection company GFL or a synagogue in Toronto.

“What we are dealing with in this case and other unrelated incidents, including synagogue shootings at Jewish schools, is a repeated and similar modus operandi: namely, criminals for hire,” explained Toronto police chief Myron Demkiw in June, after making arrests related to the shooting at the United States Consulate.

“Through encrypted messaging applications, young people are recruited to carry out attacks against various targets. And to get paid, they are required to film their attacks.”

Project South’s records do not make any connection between the shooting and its investigation, but appear to describe a similar situation.

— with files from The Canadian Press