Sixteen folks, together with a former Olympic snowboarder from Canada, have been charged in a drug trafficking operation that shipped lots of of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia via Southern California to components of the U.S and Canada. The leaders are also accused of orchestrating a number of murders.
Ryan James Wedding ceremony, 43, who represented Canada on the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake Metropolis, and Andrew Clark, 34, additionally a Canadian citizen, are charged with worldwide cocaine trafficking and homicide. The 2 had been residing in Mexico, the place Clark was arrested on Oct. 8. Wedding ceremony is a fugitive.
On Oct. 17, a superseding indictment naming a further 14 co-defendants was launched. The indictment alleges that Wedding ceremony, Clark and others facilitated the cargo of lots of of kilograms of cocaine from Southern California to Canada, utilizing a drug transportation community run by Hardeep Ratte, 45, and Gurpreet Singh, 30 of Ontario, Canada from January to August 2024. The medication had been shipped from Mexico to the Los Angeles space, the place they’d be saved in stash homes earlier than being transported up north by long-haul semi-trucks.
In a information convention the identical day, authorities stated the operation had ties to the Sinaloa Cartel.
The indictment additionally alleges that the group resorted to a number of murders. Wedding ceremony and Clark are accused of ordering the Nov. 20, 2023 murders of two members of a household in Ontario, Canada in retaliation for a stolen drug cargo. They’re additionally accused of ordering the homicide of one other sufferer on Could 18 for a drug debt. Clark and one other defendant and Canadian resident, Malik Damon Cunningham, 23, are charged with the Apr. 1 homicide of one more sufferer in Ontario, Canada.
Wedding ceremony, who can be identified by his aliases “El Jefe,” “Big,” and “Public Enemy” is charged with eight felonies: two counts of conspiracy to distribute managed substances, one depend of conspiracy to export cocaine, one depend of main a unbroken legal enterprise, three counts of homicide in reference to a unbroken legal enterprise and drug crime, and one depend of try and commit homicide in reference to a unbroken legal enterprise and drug crime. Clark, also called “The Dictator,” is going through the identical expenses, in addition to an extra depend of homicide in reference to a unbroken legal enterprise and drug crime.
Through the investigation, nicknamed “Operation Big Slalom,” a reference to the Olympic occasion Wedding ceremony competed in, regulation enforcement companies seized over one ton of cocaine, three firearms, dozens of rounds of ammunition, $255,400 in United States foreign money, and greater than $3.2 million in cryptocurrency.
In response to the superseding indictment, a number of defendants possessed an estimated 1,800 kilograms, or 1.8 metric tons, of cocaine, which was stated to hold a avenue worth between $23.4 million and $25.2 million in Los Angeles.
A number of of the defendants arrested are anticipated to make their courtroom appearances throughout the coming week in Los Angeles, Michigan, and Miami.
“Whereas key members of Wedding ceremony’s legal enterprise had been efficiently apprehended this week, he stays at giant,” stated Aki Davis, the Assistant Director in Cost of the FBI’s Los Angeles Area Workplace. “The FBI is providing a reward of as much as $50,000 for any info resulting in his arrest.”
Initially Revealed:
