A former Canadian Olympic snowboarder and 15 others are facing criminal charges for allegedly running a drug-trafficking operation that shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia to Canada and used violence — including murder — to achieve the group’s goals, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday.
U.S officials said 43-year-old Ryan James Wedding — who competed for Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics but had been living in Mexico — is the lead defendant in the case and is still on the run. Andrew Clark, a 34-year-old Canadian citizen who was also living in Mexico, was arrested on Oct. 8, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced at a Los Angeles news conference.
“As alleged in the indictment, an Olympic athlete-turned-drug lord is now charged with leading a transnational organized crime group that engaged in cocaine trafficking and murder, including of innocent civilians,” United States Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement.
According to a DOJ news release, Wedding and Clark allegedly directed the murders of two family members in Ontario on Nov. 20, 2023, “in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment that passed through Southern California.”
Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) investigators released their own statement on the case Thursday, and though Wedding and Clark are not named, they did say that two people connected to the case allegedly directed a 2023 double homicide in the Town of Caledon, Ont., which is about 60 kilometres northwest of Toronto. Police are still searching for whoever actually carried out the killings, and say they believe the family in this case was mistakenly targeted.
“This complex investigation spans multiple jurisdictions and agencies, with an alleged retaliation over stolen drugs tragically impacting an innocent family in Ontario, Canada,” OPP Deputy Commissioner Marty Kearns said in a statement.
Wedding takes a practice run for the men’s parallel giant slalom at the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Olympic Games in 2002. (Jeff J Mitchell/Reuters)
Additionally, according to the DOJ news release, Wedding and Clark allegedly ordered the murder of another victim in Ontario on May 18, 2024 over a drug debt.
Wedding and Clark, U.S. officials say, are charged with multiple felonies, including murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise.
Clark and Canadian Malik Damion Cunningham, 23, are also charged in connection with another homicide investigation in Ontario from April of this year, the DOJ says.
In a superseding indictment, which amends the initial indictment against Wedding and others, the DOJ alleges the drug-trafficking operation conspired to ship hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Southern California to Canada from January to August of this year.
“The cocaine shipments were transported from Mexico to the Los Angeles area, where the cocaine trafficking organization’s operatives would store the cocaine in stash houses, before delivering it to the transportation network couriers for transportation to Canada using long-haul semi-trucks,” the DOJ’s news release reads.
Two Ontario men, 45-year-old Hardeep Ratte and 30-year-old Gurpreet Singh, were allegedly in charge of the transportation.
American law enforcement officials say several people charged in connection with the case are expected to appear in court in the coming weeks in Los Angeles, Michigan and Miami.
During the investigation, law enforcement officers seized approximately 1,800 kilograms of cocaine, the DOJ says, alongside $255,400 US in cash, and $3.2 million in cryptocurrency.