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 when he was based out of Coquitlam, B.C., but recently 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.
U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada told reporters that Wedding is alleged to have led a transnational, organized crime group that engaged in cocaine trafficking and murder.
“Instead of using the privileges that come with being an Olympic athlete to do good for people, he did the opposite,” Estrada alleged. “He chose to become a major drug trafficker and he chose to become a killer.”
Wedding would contract the killings of anyone who got in the way of his criminal enterprise, Estrada alleged.
“This group was ruthless and violent,” he said.
Some of the alleged victims of Wedding’s organization were from Canada, including two whom investigators believe were innocent civilians, Estrada said.
Wedding responsible for Caledon, Ont., homicide: OPP
According to Canadian police, who collaborated with U.S. officials on the investigation, Wedding and Clark allegedly directed the murders of two family members in Caledon, Ont., on Nov. 20, 2023, in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment that passed through Southern California.
The two people who were killed, Jagtar and Harbhajan Sidhu, both in their 50s, were visiting from India to see their daughter, Jaspreet Kaur Sidhu. She was seriously injured in the shooting, Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Deputy Commissioner Marty Kearns told reporters. No members of the family had any connection to Wedding’s organization, he said.
“This was a case of mistaken identity,” Kearns said. “This devastating incident claimed two lives and left a young woman with life-altering injuries.”
The investigation into that double homicide is continuing, he said, with police still seeking suspects.
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.
During the investigation, law enforcement officers seized about 1,800 kilograms of cocaine, along with $255,400 US in cash, and $3.2 million in cryptocurrency, the DOJ says.
On average, the organization allegedly moved 60 tons of cocaine around North America every year, U.S. Attorney Estrada said.
Cocaine was transported from Colombia to Mexico, then trucked across the border, where shipments were stored in stash houses in the Los Angeles area, Estrada said. The organization used couriers to transport the cocaine to the U.S. east coast and Canada, he added.
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. Officials said 12 of the 16 accused in the investigation have been arrested.
The FBI is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for any information that leads to Wedding’s arrest and extradition.
