Court documents reveal new details about U.S. probe into ex-Canadian Olympian accused of running drug trafficking ring

U.S. authorities earlier this year knew the whereabouts of a former Canadian Olympian who is now on the run for allegedly running a transnational drug trafficking ring and orchestrating murders in Ontario, according to Ontario court documents.

A statement of facts included in an extradition court application laid out new details about the U.S. investigation into a drug trafficking organization allegedly led by Ryan Wedding.

The 43-year-old, who competed for Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, is one of the 16 defendants named in a superseding indictment unsealed earlier this month, which alleges that the group was running what authorities described as a transnational drug trafficking operation.

Wedding remains at large while Andrew Clark, a Canadian resident who was described as the “second in command” in the statement of facts, was arrested in Mexico on Oct. 8.

According to the document, Wedding and Clark met with a “cooperating witness” who worked with them for more than a decade and agreed to assist U.S. authorities as they gathered evidence against the drug trafficking group.

The document stated that the witness also met with other group members in person as well as communicating with them using an encrypted messaging app called Threema.

In their communications between February and April 2024, the documents allege that the group talked about transporting large quantities of cocaine.

The statement of facts also offered up more details of the alleged involvement of Wedding and Clark in a homicide in Niagara Falls in April.

U.S. authorities were notified by the RCMP in July that evidence collected from a suspect arrested in connection with the murder contained communications with Threema accounts associated with Clark.

According to the document, the victim, identified as R.F., was fatally shot in the driveway of his residence. R.F. was known to Canadian law enforcement who said they believed he was involved in international drug trafficking.

Police said they were able to track the suspect vehicle in Toronto, where they observed the occupants transferring to a second vehicle. Two weeks after the murder, police said they conducted a traffic stop of the second vehicle and arrested the sole occupant who was later identified as Malik Damion Cunningham. Officers also seized seven rounds of ammunition, over $100,000 and four phones, according to the court documents.

After obtaining a warrant, police searched one of the phones and recovered Threema communications between Cunningham and Clark “discussing plans to commit murders,” according to the statement of facts.

The document further alleged that an analysis of the messages showed that Clark hired Cunningham “to murder a list of targets,” which included R.F.

The statement of facts indicated that on March 18, 2024, Cunnigham exchanged messages with Clark on Threema.

“Okay I wanna do the easiest and head up,” Cunningham allegedly wrote.

According to the statement of facts, Clark responded, “Maybe the niagara falls ginger lol. But its not much 100K and I’ll pay expenses Driveaway job someone else was gonna do it but well test out your new military training skills.”

The documents went on to allege that Clark later told Cunningham to “drive over niagara blow this guys top off.”

Other details, including vehicle descriptions and photos that matched the evidence police found at the crime scene, were found in the Threema communications, the court documents noted.

Cunningham’s phone was also pinged within two kilometres of R.F.’s residence on April 1, according to the statement of facts. The court documents allege that Cunnigham took a photo on his phone two days after the murder, depicting a pistol and a large quantity of Canadian currency with the caption “good night!”

Niagara Regional Police have since identified the victim as 29-year-old Ryan Fader.

In addition to the Niagara homicide, Wedding and Clark are also accused of directing murders in Brampton and Caledon, where Ontario Provincial Police said an innocent Indian couple was fatally shot in a case of mistaken identity.

With files from CTV Toronto’s Phil Tsekouras