An accused accomplice in a $1 billion drug ring allegedly led by former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding has been brought to the U.S. from Mexico to face federal charges, the U.S. Justice Department announced Friday in a release provided to Fox News Digital.
Andrew Clark, 34, a Canadian citizen who was living in Mexico, was arrested by Mexican authorities in October 2024 and is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in U.S. District Court in Arizona.
“The defendant, as described in the superseding indictment, played a key role in running a violent, international drug trafficking organization that was responsible for multiple murders,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph T. McNally said in Friday’s announcement.
“We are grateful to have him in the United States where he will face justice. When law enforcement officials around the globe work together, there is nowhere criminals can hide.”
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An image of former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding, 43, who is a fugitive and has been charged with running and participating in a transnational drug trafficking operation, is displayed on a video monitor along with bricks of cocaine, foreground, during a news conference at the FBI offices in Los Angeles Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Clark’s aliases include “The Dictator,” and he allegedly controlled a $1 billion drug enterprise with supply routes that transported tons of cocaine from Colombia to Canada by way of Mexico and Southern California.
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Cocaine (Marcus Brandt/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Wedding, who competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City for Canada, faces drug trafficking charges in Canada that date back to 2015, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Chief Superintendent Chris Leather said.
Wedding was previously convicted in the U.S. of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and he was sentenced to prison in 2010, according to federal records.
According to the superseding indictment, Wedding and Clark allegedly directed the murders of two individuals and the attempted murder of a third victim in Ontario, Canada, in November 2023. Wedding and Clark also allegedly ordered the murder of a fourth individual in May 2024.
Clark and another co-defendant are also charged with the murder of a fifth individual in Ontario, Canada, in April 2024.
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Canada’s Ryan Wedding in the 2002 Olympics. (Tony Marshall/EMPICS via Getty Images)
From March 2024 to August 2024, Wedding and Clark allegedly conspired with others to distribute more than 1,800 kilograms of cocaine. Wedding, Clark, and their co-conspirators also allegedly transferred approximately a quarter of a billion dollars from April 2024 to September 2024. Investigators seized more than $3 million from one cryptocurrency wallet in a single day.
Clark is the second named defendant in the superseding indictment that charges a total of 16 defendants. With Clark’s expected court appearance, a total of eight defendants will have been arraigned in this case. The trial of Clark’s alleged co-conspirators is scheduled to begin May 6.
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