TORONTO — Police uncovered the alleged corruption at the heart of Project South only after investigating a plot to murder a senior Toronto corrections official, a discovery that Ontario Superior Court Justice Laura Bird said should deeply concern the public.
Investigators allege the plot was connected to Gurpreet Singh, an inmate at the Toronto South Detention Centre accused of distributing cocaine for Ryan Wedding.
A photograph of the official’s licence plate allegedly passed from inside the jail through intermediaries to a Toronto police officer, who used it to obtain the official’s home address. Investigators believe that information then reached a group of hired gunmen. Wedding, the former Olympic snowboarder arrested in Mexico City in January, awaits trial in Los Angeles.
In a conversation captured on a police recording device, Brian Da Costa, an alleged Toronto fentanyl trafficker with international criminal connections, allegedly reassured Const. Timothy Barnhardt that avoiding arrest showed he had made “better decisions” that would reflect favourably on “the boss,” according to documents released to Canadian media under Justice Bird’s decision.
In reasons released Wednesday allowing more of the court materials behind Project South to be published, Bird wrote that police “stumbled upon” the alleged corruption while investigating the murder conspiracy.
“There is no evidence that anyone was suspicious of Mr. Barnhardt or his associates until that moment,” she wrote.
“That is something that should be of tremendous concern to the public because it demonstrates that a trusted public official can engage in widespread illegal conduct and go undetected.”
The newly reportable allegations describe a wider operation in which confidential police information, protection from enforcement and police equipment were allegedly sold to criminal associates. Singh has not been charged in Project South, and his lawyer denies the allegations.
Singh is being held at Toronto South while fighting extradition to the United States, where he is accused alongside his uncle, Hardeep Ratte, of moving cocaine shipments north for Wedding’s network in Sinaloa.
A separate set of police filings, unsealed in July by Ontario Superior Court Justice Edward Morgan after a disclosure request by the legal teams for Singh and Ratte, places Singh inside the cartel supply chain that fed that network.
Those documents, filed by the RCMP with a Quebec judge in 2024 in support of wiretap authorizations, record that Singh reported being kidnapped “and tied up” by Mexican cartel members while visiting Sinaloa state in August 2024, purportedly over a $600,000 drug debt. Wedding claimed he intervened personally to secure Singh’s release. Earlier that year, a confidential informant for the FBI reported that Singh was under “a lot of pressure ‘from Mexicans’ to pay off his outstanding debts for cocaine loads they gave him in 2023.”
Project South has produced charges against seven serving Toronto police officers and one retired officer, along with 19 civilians, one of whose charges has since been stayed.
The corruption probe details appear in an Information to Obtain, or ITO, filed in support of more than 50 search warrants in the investigation, according to Canadian media reports. Bird permitted publication of additional material following an application by a coalition of news organizations. “The importance of public scrutiny in this case cannot be overstated,” she wrote. The 274-page document sets out what a seven-month investigation gathered through wiretaps, surveillance, cellphone data, undercover operations and secret recordings of more than two dozen suspects.
*The Bureau *was not part of that application and has requested the unsealed court materials.
This account draws on reporting by Canadian news organizations that obtained them. Portions remain subject to publication restrictions, and the allegations detailed here have not been tested in court.
Investigators identified Singh’s treatment inside the jail as a possible motive for the plot against the corrections official. The official was known for strict enforcement.
According to reporting on the ITO, the official had seized cellphones and steroids from a cell Singh shared with another inmate and separated the two men. The official also named Singh among a handful of inmates who had expressed hostility toward them.
Investigators suspected the licence-plate photograph originated with Nishwant Dosanjh, a correctional officer whom police describe as Singh’s former romantic partner.
They allege she photographed the plate in the jail’s staff parking area and passed the image to Singh. From there, police believe it reached Da Costa, either directly or through another intermediary with alleged connections to the tow-truck industry. Investigators describe Da Costa in the document as “a key figure in the criminal network operating within the Greater Toronto Area with, in fact, significant international ties.”
Da Costa allegedly supplied the plate to Barnhardt, who searched it on May 27, 2025. Investigators allege the resulting information went back to Da Costa and reached the group accused of plotting the killing.
On June 18, a gunman arrived at the official’s home. The official was absent. The gunman confronted the official’s grandfather before fleeing.
The subsequent investigation identified Barnhardt’s earlier database search, opening the inquiry into his dealings with Da Costa.
Police also examined Dosanjh’s relationship with Singh and her access to the targeted official’s information. The ITO reportedly alleges that she arranged her schedule to work on Singh’s wing and spent unusually long periods with him, sometimes alone. “Her TSDC supervisor has described these sustained encounters as well outside the norm for inmate/ CO contact,” police wrote, according to Global News. “Singh appears to exercise a degree of influence if not power over Dosanjh, which is anomalous given their roles.”
In April 2025, two months before the attempt on the official’s life, another correctional officer filed a report after growing suspicious of Dosanjh, the ITO states. Dosanjh had told that officer that Singh gave her expensive gifts, payments for cosmetic surgery and travel.
Dosanjh has not been charged in Project South. Her lawyers say she cooperated with investigators and maintains her innocence. Singh’s lawyer has also rejected the allegations.
As the investigation widened, police placed Barnhardt under surveillance, including through a recording device hidden in his cruiser.
In one September 2025 encounter described in media reports, Barnhardt allegedly invited a suspected drug dealer into the passenger seat and showed him the computer used to search confidential databases.
The man handed over several $100 bills. Barnhardt allegedly put them in the front pocket of his police vest.
Investigators identified 17 off-duty database searches by Barnhardt during the first six months of 2025. They allege he regularly supplied confidential information to Da Costa, often conducting searches at Da Costa’s request.
Some of the people whose information he allegedly searched later became targets of violence. In one case, the home of a man with gambling debts to organized crime groups was shot at days after Barnhardt searched his information. Others whose information was searched included a witness to a murder and a jeweller targeted in an attempted robbery outside his store.
The ITO also reportedly describes cash payments ranging from $250 to $900 a week for searches Barnhardt called surveillance checks. Investigators allege he understood that information he sold could facilitate serious violence and expressed indifference to whether people were harmed. “That sh– is expensive to do,” he allegedly told an associate who asked for an address as a favour, according to a police transcript. “I charge a lot.”
Other recordings allegedly captured officers discussing cocaine transactions with one another.
Barnhardt and Const. Saurabjit Bedi allegedly supplied each other with cocaine. According to CP24’s account of the ITO, intercepted conversations covered acquisition, pricing, weighing, quality and redistribution.
Investigators also allege Barnhardt and Da Costa helped plan illegal cannabis dispensaries and massage parlours, with Barnhardt finding premises and arranging protection from enforcement.
Police and bylaw officers were to receive monthly cash payments, described as “envelopes,” in exchange for inspection and warrant warnings, suppression of enforcement and harassment of competitors.
Barnhardt also allegedly sold Toronto police uniform items to Da Costa.
The Bureau reported in March that Da Costa’s bail conditions barred contact with 35 people, including Gurpreet Singh.
