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A former Olympic snowboarder is accused of working a serious transnational drug trafficking group that shipped large quantities of cocaine and allegedly employed hitmen to homicide a number of folks, federal officers stated.
Ryan Wedding ceremony, 43, a former Olympian from Canada who now resides in Mexico, is amongst 16 folks charged in a federal indictment, the Division of Justice introduced on Thursday.
The “prolific and ruthless” organized crime group shipped “actually tons of cocaine into the US and Canada,” U.S. Lawyer Martin Estrada stated throughout a press briefing.
“They had been killers,” stated Estrada. “Anybody who received of their means they’d goal with violence. Together with homicide.”
On this Feb. 14, 2002, file picture, Ryan Wedding ceremony of Canada competes within the qualifying spherical of the boys’s parallel big slalom snowboarding occasion through the Salt Lake Metropolis Winter Olympic Video games on the Park Metropolis Mountain Resort in Park Metropolis, Utah.
Adam Fairly/Getty Photos, FILE
Wedding ceremony allegedly ran the billion-dollar operation for the previous 13 years from Mexico, Estrada stated. The group allegedly moved about 60 tons of cocaine per yr, Estrada stated.
At one level, the group used the Los Angeles space as a hub for his or her operation, Estrada stated. They allegedly used long-haul vans to maneuver shipments of cocaine from drug kitchens in Colombia to stash homes in Los Angeles after which would ship the cocaine to principally Canada but in addition to the East Coast of the U.S., he stated.
Wedding ceremony and others allegedly made billions of {dollars}, which they moved round within the type of cryptocurrency, in response to Estrada. They’re accused of laundering 1 / 4 of a billion {dollars} from April to September, he stated.
A photograph of narcotics prosecutors stated had been seized by legislation enforcement, which was included in a federal indictment.
U.S. Division of Justice
Regulation enforcement has seized multiple ton of cocaine, three firearms, dozens of rounds of ammunition, $255,400 in U.S. foreign money and greater than $3.2 million in cryptocurrency as a part of its investigation into the so-called Wedding ceremony Drug Trafficking Group, the DOJ stated.
The indictment additionally alleges that the operation used contract killers to assassinate anybody they noticed as getting of their means. The victims had been all shot execution-style in Canada, so their family members might see them murdered, prosecutors stated.
The victims included two mother and father who had been murdered in entrance of their daughter in a case of mistaken id in 2023, Estrada stated. The daughter was additionally shot a number of instances however survived, he stated.
One other sufferer was killed over a drug debt in Might, and a fourth was murdered in April, prosecutors stated.
Canadian former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding ceremony, 43, who’s a fugitive, is seen high left, with 15 different defendants who’ve been charged in a 16-count superseding indictment for allegedly working and taking part in a transnational drug trafficking operation, are displayed on a video monitor as federal, native, and worldwide officers announce federal costs and arrests of alleged members at a information convention on the FBI workplaces in Los Angeles, Oct. 17, 2024.
Damian Dovarganes/AP
Fees within the 16-count superseding indictment embrace drug counts, prison enterprise costs and homicide in reference to a seamless prison enterprise and drug crime.
Lots of the defendants had been arrested in latest weeks in California, Michigan, Florida, Canada, Colombia and Mexico, prosecutors stated. A number of are anticipated to make their courtroom appearances within the coming week in Los Angeles, Michigan and Miami.
Wedding ceremony is taken into account a fugitive and the FBI is providing a reward of as much as $50,000 for any data resulting in his arrest, federal officers stated.
Wedding ceremony, whose aliases embrace “El Jefe,” “Big,” and “Public Enemy,” was beforehand charged within the unique indictment and is the superseding indictment’s lead defendant, prosecutors stated.
He competed for Canada within the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake Metropolis, the place he positioned twenty fourth within the big parallel slalom.
If convicted of homicide and tried homicide costs, he faces a compulsory minimal penalty of life in federal jail, the DOJ stated. The persevering with prison enterprise costs additionally carry a compulsory minimal penalty of life in federal jail.
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