Canadian fugitive ex-Olympian Ryan Wedding likely still has 'network of hitmen,' prosecutors warn
CBC
While the FBI hunts Canadian fugitive Ryan Wedding, U.S. authorities are warning he remains a threat and likely still has a team of contract killers at the ready.
Wedding, who competed for Canada as a snowboarder at the 2002 Olympic Games, is accused of running a violent, $1-billion US transnational criminal enterprise. He remains on the lam while facing murder and drug trafficking charges in California.
Between them, Wedding and his top lieutenant, fellow Canadian Andrew Clark, are accused of orchestrating at least four killings in southern Ontario, including the mistaken-identity shootings of the Sidhu family in November 2023.
A court filing reviewed by CBC News shows U.S. prosecutors on Thursday sought extra protections for the identities of confidential informants and co-operating witnesses in the case, highlighting the risk they could face if their names were revealed.
"This is a complex case involving a sophisticated drug-trafficking organization, whose leaders have shown a callous disregard for human life, including … deploying hitmen to execute perceived rivals or enemies," Los Angeles-based assistant U.S. attorney Maria Jhai wrote.
"Wedding is at large, presumably with the same access to encrypted means of communication and network of hitmen that enabled the charged murders."
According to an indictment unsealed in October, Wedding and Clark used the encrypted messaging app Threema to run their operation from Mexico. The cartel-linked network allegedly stored drugs in Los Angeles stash houses and moved 54 tonnes of Colombian cocaine a year through North America, including to the Toronto area.
While Clark was arrested in Mexico in October, U.S. authorities have said Wedding, 43, may be hiding out in the same country or anywhere in Latin America. The FBI is offering a reward of up to $50,000 US for information leading to his arrest and extradition.
An unnamed co-operating witness — who met with Wedding and Clark in Mexico City in January 2024 — is key to the prosecution. A statement of facts filed Thursday in Ontario Superior Court in Toronto reveals the witness "trafficked drugs with Wedding for more than a decade" and agreed to work with investigators in 2023.
The indictment also refers to a confidential source who posed as a member of the criminal network, infiltrated the group's encrypted chats and provided evidence to U.S. authorities.
Hardeep Ratte, described by U.S. prosecutors as the Canadian transportation chief for Wedding's drug trafficking network, appeared in a Toronto court on Friday for the second day of his bail hearing. U.S. prosecutors are seeking to extradite Ratte and three other Canadians detained in Ontario for their alleged roles in the criminal enterprise.
Court records identify Malik Damion Cunningham, who went by the alias "Mr. Perfect," as the Toronto-based hitman hired by Clark to kill "a list of targets." He's charged with murder in the April 2024 shooting death of 29-year-old Randy Fader in the reputed drug trafficker's driveway in Niagara Falls, Ont.
In all, the RCMP said 10 Canadians were arrested or sought by authorities in relation to Wedding's alleged empire.
It's not clear who pulled the trigger in November 2023, when at least one gunman burst into a rented home in Caledon, Ont., and fatally opened fire on Jagtar Sidhu, 57, and his 55-year-old wife, Harbhajan, who were visiting from India.
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