🚨NO WHITE SUPREMACISTS INVOLVED🚨
🚨NO ISLAMIC TERRORISTS INVOLVED🚨
I added this screenshot above.
CP24 published October 18, 2024: FBI offering up to $50,000 for tips leading to wedding's arrest. A former Canadian Olympian is wanted in the U.S. for running a drug trafficking ring and he's also wanted in the GTA for a double murder in Caldeon last year.
Authorities believe Wedding is in Mexico. (emphasis mine)
ABC7 News published October 17, 2024: Officials will announce federal charges and arrests of alleged members of a transnational organized crime group.
The Los Angeles Times
written by Noah Goldberg
Thursday October 17, 2024
It was a career pivot to say the least.
Ryan James Wedding, 43, was once an aspiring snowboarder who competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He came in 24th for Canada in the men’s parallel giant slalom.
But federal prosecutors alleged Thursday that Ryan Wedding had chosen a different path following his snowboarding career. He had become a major trafficker of cocaine into Canada and the United States, a ruthless leader of a criminal drug enterprise who would stop at nothing to keep his business — “The Wedding Criminal Enterprise” — running smoothly.
“He chose to become a major drug trafficker and a killer,” U.S. Atty. for the Central District of California Martin Estrada said during a news conference.
He remains on the loose.
“Ryan Wedding is still at large,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Krysti Hawkins.
Prosecutors announced a sprawling superseding indictment Thursday charging Wedding with conspiracy to export cocaine, with running a continuing criminal enterprise, and with three murders in connection with the operation as well as an attempted murder. The superseding document amends and replaces the original indictment.
“An Olympic athlete-turned-druglord is now charged with leading a transnational organized crime group that engaged in cocaine trafficking and murder, including of innocent civilians,” Estrada said.
Prosecutors alleged that Wedding — who was known by many aliases, including “El Jefe” and “Public Enemy” — ran the drug trafficking organization from 2011 to 2024 along with his second-in-command Andrew Clark. Clark was arrested this month in Mexico.
They moved 60 tons of cocaine per year, Estrada said, calling the enterprise “extremely prolific.” It was a billion-dollar organization, federal prosecutors said. Prosecutors said as part of their investigation they seized more than a ton of cocaine, dozens of rounds of ammunition and more than $3 million in cryptocurrency.
They moved the cocaine from Colombia through Mexico and into Southern California. From there they distributed it to Canada and other parts of the United States, working with a Canadian drug transportation network helmed by Hardeep Ratte and Gurpreet Singh. The cocaine was stored in Los Angeles stash houses before it was taken to Canada in trucks, prosecutors alleged.
Together Wedding and Clark ruled their enterprise with an iron fist, Estrada said.
“They were killers. Anyone who got in their way they would target with violence, including murder,” he said.
The duo would hire contract killers and take out hits on people who they believed got in the way of their business.
In November 2023, Estrada said, they ordered the killings of an Indian couple visiting Canada who they believed had stolen a cocaine shipment. It was a case of mistaken identity. The couple was shot to death in front of their daughter — who was also shot but survived.
In April 2024, Clark and another co-defendant, Malik Damion, ordered the killing of another man in Ontario who was shot to death in his driveway. One month later, Wedding and Clark allegedly had another man killed over a drug debt as he sat in his car in the driveway of his home.
The killings were all execution-style, Estrada said.
It is not the first time Wedding ran afoul of the law. In 2008 he was arrested on cocaine trafficking charges. He was convicted of conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine in federal court in San Diego in 2009 after a jury trial.
As part of a joint investigation, 12 people were arrested in the U.S., Canada, Colombia and Mexico in connection with the drug trafficking enterprise.
Authorities are offering $50,000 to anyone who has information leading to the arrest of Wedding.
CBS Miami published October 17, 2024: South Florida man arrested in drug-smuggling ring. A federal raid led to arrest of a South Florida man in an international drug-smuggling ring.
This guy was a music producer who was a major distributor of cocaine and meth. (emphasis mine)
KTLA5 News published October 17, 2024: Fugitive ex-Olympic snowboarder among 16 charged in connection to transnational drug trafficking.
An “Olympic athlete turned drug lord” and 15 others have been charged in a superseding indictment for allegedly running a transnational drug trafficking operation that routinely shipped large amounts of cocaine from Colombia to Canada via Southern California while orchestrating four murders “in furtherance” of their other crimes, officials say.
KTLA 5's Carlos Saucedo reports.
KTLA5 News, Los Angeles local
written by Will Conybeare
Thursday October 17, 2024
An “Olympic athlete turned drug lord” and 15 others have been charged in a superseding indictment for allegedly running a transnational drug trafficking operation that routinely shipped large amounts of cocaine from Colombia to Canada via Southern California while orchestrating four murders “in furtherance” of their other crimes, officials say.
Two Canadian men residing in Mexico – Ryan James Wedding and Andrew Clark – were previously charged in an original indictment with running a criminal enterprise, murder and conspiring to possess, distribute and export cocaine, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday.
Wedding competed for Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City; according to the official Olympics website, he finished 24th in the parallel giant slalom event.
Thursday’s superseding indictment names 14 additional co-defendants and alleges that Wedding, Clark and others conspired to ship bulk quantities of cocaine weighing hundreds of kilograms from SoCal to Canada through a Canada-based drug transportation network run by Hardeep Ratte, 45, and Gurpreet Singh, 30, both residents of Ontario, Canada.
“The cocaine shipments were transported from Mexico to the Los Angeles area where the organization’s operatives would store it in stash houses before delivering it to the transportation network couriers for transportation to Canada using long-haul semi-trucks,” the Department of Justice stated.
Many times, officials said, the group would turn to violence – including multiple murders – to achieve its aims.
Wedding and Clark allegedly directed the murders of two Ontario, Canada, family members in November 2023 due to a drug shipment that was stolen in Southern California; another member of that family survived the shooting but was left with serious injuries, the DOJ said.
In another incident this past May, both men allegedly ordered the murder of another victim over a drug debt. Clark and another man – 23-year-old Canadian resident Malik Damion Cunningham – are charged with the April 1 murder of another victim in Ontario, Canada.
Wedding, 43, the lead defendant in the superseding indictment and whose aliases include “El Jefe,” “Giant” and “Public Enemy,” is charged with eight felonies:
- Conspiracy to distribute controlled substances (two counts)
- Conspiracy to distribute cocaine
- Leading a continuing criminal enterprise
- Murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and drug crime (three counts)
- Attempt to commit murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and drug crime
The official Olympics website also states that in 2006, Wedding was named in a search warrant in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, that was investigated for growing large quantities of marijuana but he was never charged. However, he was convicted of attempting to buy cocaine from a U.S. government agent in 2008, and was sentenced to four years in prison.
Clark, 34, also known by the alias “The Dictator,” faces the same eight charges plus an additional count of murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and drug crime.
While Clark was arrested by Mexican law enforcement on Oct. 8, Wedding remains a fugitive, the DOJ confirmed.
In an update issued early Thursday afternoon, the FBI identified and released photos of three additional fugitives with alleged ties to the transnational drug trafficking ring: Anselmo Acuna “El Perro” Garcia, Joel Sosa Cardenas and Gennadii “John” Bilonog.
All three men had a federal warrant issued for them on Sept. 17, the FBI said.
Throughout their investigation, law enforcement officials have seized more than one ton of cocaine, three firearms, dozens of rounds of ammunition, $255,400 in cash and more than $3.2 million in cryptocurrency.
The superseding indictment states that the organization delivered 646 pounds of cocaine to representatives of Ratte and Singh in Canada in March and that a shipment of 827 pounds of cocaine was intercepted the following month.
“In total, several defendants possessed a total of approximately 1.8 metric tons of cocaine,” the superseding indictment read.
Those 1.8 metric tons of cocaine have a street value between $23.4 and $25.2 million in L.A., officials said.
Several of the defendants arrested are expected to make court appearances within the coming week in Los Angeles, Michigan and Miami.
If convicted as charged, Wedding, Clark and Cunningham would face a mandatory minimum penalty of life in prison for the murder and attempted murder charges. The continuing criminal enterprise charges also carry a mandatory minimum of life in federal prison, while the drug trafficking charges carry mandatory minimum penalties between 10 and 15 years.
United States Attorney Martin Estrada was among several federal and international law enforcement officials present at a press conference Thursday announcing the arrests and denouncing the fugitive, cold-blooded ringleader.
“Instead of using the privileges of being an Olympic athlete to do good for people, he did the opposite,” Estrada said. “He chose to become a major drug trafficker, and he chose to become a killer.”
Chris Leather, the Chief Superintendent of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, declared the arrests and seizure of drugs “a major victory.”
“I firmly believe this is a major victory in our ongoing battle against organized crime and the illicit drug trade,” he said. “The individuals behind this network have been a persistent threat to Canada and our allies for a number of years.”
The billion-dollar criminal enterprise was one of the largest importers of cocaine in North America before being dismantled, officials added at Thursday’s press conference.
The FBI considers Ryan Wedding to be armed and dangerous, and they are offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to his apprehension and extradition.
No comments:
Post a Comment