An Olympic snowboarder along with 15 others were charged for allegedly running a massive international drug trafficking operation to smuggle cocaine into Canada from Colombia through Mexico, using Los Angeles as their transportation hub, federal authorities announced Thursday.
Ryan Wedding, a Canadian citizen who competed for Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, allegedly ran a criminal enterprise that smuggled 16 tons of cocaine to Canada every year, being the largest cocaine supplier to the country.
“Just from March to August of this year alone, we found they transported 1,800 kilograms of cocaine,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said. “On a yearly basis, they would move about 60 tons of cocaine.
The cocaine shipments were “routinely” shipped from Colombia to Mexico, then they were transported to Los Angeles stash houses before being smuggled into Ontario, Canada, federal investigators alleged.
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Wedding, who now resides in Mexico, was on the run while several of the defendants were in custody awaiting their court appearance in Los Angeles in the coming weeks.
“We will not allow Los Angeles to be used as a trans-shipment point," Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton of the Los Angeles Police Department, which collaborated with the FBI, DEA and other international law enforcement agencies in the latest takedown, said.
Hamilton also said there were violent acts that can be “traced directly” to the alleged criminal enterprise.
“The violence is one of the byproducts that is an unfortunate aspect of these drug trafficking organizations, and the Los Angeles Police Department remains committed as well to preventing that violence from occurring not only in the Los Angeles region, but linked to this organization throughout North America,” Hamilton said.
Wedding, who is also known as “El Jefe,” and his co-conspirator, Andrew Clark, were also accused of committing murders over stolen drugs or drug debts.
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“The Wedding Drug Trafficking Organization and its unremitting, callous and greed-driven crimes has been operating for far too long, spanning several countries, from Colombia through Mexico, the U.S. and to Canada,” said Matthew Allen, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Los Angeles. “They have triggered an avalanche of violent crimes, including brutal murders.
During the investigation, authorities have seized more than one ton of cocaine, $255,400 as well as more than $3.2 million in cryptocurrency, officials said.
As Wedding, 43, remained at large, the FBI offered a reward of up to $50,000 for any information leading to his arrest.
If convicted, Wedding would face a mandatory minimum penalty of life in federal prison on the murder and attempted murder charge
