Former Canadian Olympian charged in connection with massive cocaine bust, alleged murders

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. 

"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," United States Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement. 

According to a DOJ news release, Wedding and Clark allegedly directed the murders of two family members in Ontario on Nov. 20, 2023, "in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment that passed through Southern California."

Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) investigators released their own statement on the case Thursday, and though Wedding and Clark are not named, they did say that two people connected to the case allegedly directed a 2023 double homicide in the Town of Caledon, Ont., which is about 60 kilometres northwest of Toronto. Police are still searching for whoever actually carried out the killings, and say they believe the family in this case was mistakenly targeted.

"This complex investigation spans