A Canadian former Olympic snowboarder and 15 other defendants have been charged in a 16-count superseding indictment for allegedly running and participating in a transnational drug trafficking operation that routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California, to Canada and other locations in the United States, and whose leaders orchestrated multiple murders in furtherance of these drug crimes.
Ryan James Wedding, 43, a Canadian citizen residing in Mexico, and Andrew Clark, 34, a Canadian citizen also residing in Mexico, were previously charged in the original indictment with running a continuing criminal enterprise, murder, and conspiring to possess, distribute, and export cocaine.
Clark was arrested October 8 by Mexican law enforcement and is detained. Wedding is a fugitive.
The first superseding indictment, unsealed on October 16, names 14 additional co-defendants. The superseding indictment alleges that Wedding, Clark, and others conspired to ship bulk quantities of cocaine – weighing hundreds of kilograms – from Southern California to Canada through a Canada-based drug transportation network run by Hardeep Ratte, 45, of Ontario, Canada, and Gurpreet Singh, 30, of Ontario, Canada, from approximately January 2024 to August 2024.
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.
As alleged in the superseding indictment, the organization resorted to violence – including multiple murders – to achieve its aims. Wedding and Clark allegedly directed the November 20, 2023, murders of two members of a family in Ontario, Canada, in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment that passed through Southern California.
Another member of that family survived the shooting but was left with serious physical injuries. Wedding and Clark allegedly also ordered the murder of another victim on May 18, 2024, over a drug debt. Clark and Malik Damion Cunningham, 23, a resident of Canada, are charged with the April 1, 2024, murder of another victim in Ontario, Canada.
Wedding, whose aliases include “El Jefe,” “Giant,” and “Public Enemy,” and who competed for Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, is the superseding indictment’s lead defendant.
Wedding is charged with eight felonies: two counts of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, one count of conspiracy to export cocaine, one count of leading a continuing criminal enterprise, three counts of murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and drug crime, and one count of attempt to commit murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and drug crime.
Clark, whose aliases include “The Dictator,” is charged with the same eight felonies plus an additional count of murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and drug crime.
“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,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. “My office’s mandate is to protect the public and stopping sophisticated and violent organized crime groups goes to the heart of that mission. We will continue to collaborate with our federal, local, and international law enforcement partners to bring these groups to justice.”
“Organised Crime groups create immense harm in all our communities, not just with the poisons they ship, but through the tragic violence that inevitably comes with it,” said Liam Price, Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s Director General of International Special Services.
Price added, “This network presented a threat to communities in Canada, the United States and overseas. That is why we, as Canada’s national police force, worked closely with the FBI and others to disrupt it. This operation demonstrates the value and the impact of close collaboration with amongst international partners to combat transnational organized crime, helping keep our communities safe. We will always look beyond our borders to where these threats originate and try to stop them at source.”
“The Wedding Drug Trafficking Organisation and its unremitting, callous and greed-driven crimes has been operating for far too long, spanning several countries, from Colombia through Mexico, the U.S. and to Canada,” said Matthew Allen, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Los Angeles Field Division.
Allen explained that they “have triggered an avalanche of violent crimes, including brutal murders. Wedding, the Olympian snowboarder, went from navigating slopes to contouring a life of incessant crimes. DEA and our partners stand firmly in our resolve to dismantle his operation.”
During the investigation, law enforcement has seized more than one ton of cocaine, three firearms, dozens of rounds of ammunition, $255,400 in United States currency, and more than $3.2 million in cryptocurrency. According to the superseding indictment, in March 2024, the organization delivered a total of approximately 293 kilograms (646 pounds) of cocaine to representatives of Ratte and Singh for eventual shipment to and distribution in Canada.
The following month, the organisation attempted to deliver approximately 375.1 kilograms (827 pounds) of cocaine to representatives of Ratte and Singh for eventual transportation to Canada, but investigators interrupted the delivery and seized the cocaine.
In total, several defendants possessed a total of approximately 1,800 kilograms (1.8 metric tons) of cocaine, according to the superseding indictment. One-thousand-eight hundred kilograms of cocaine carries a street value between $23.4 and $25.2 million in Los Angeles.
Several of the defendants arrested are expected to make their court appearances within the coming week in Los Angeles, Michigan, and Miami.
If convicted, Wedding, Clark, and Cunningham would face a mandatory minimum penalty of life in federal prison on the murder and attempted murder charges. The continuing criminal enterprise charges also carry a mandatory minimum penalty of life in federal prison. The drug trafficking charges carry mandatory minimum penalties between 10 and 15 years in prison.
