Canadian man linked to ex-Olympian’s crime ring extradited to U.S. from Mexico
The Toronto man known as “The Dictator”— accused of orchestrating multiple murders on behalf of the transnational drug-trafficking ring led by a former Olympic snowboarder — has been extradited to the U.S.
Andrew Clark was among 29 cartel-linked defendants taken into U.S. custody from Mexico on Thursday, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
“I can confirm Clark is in the United States and in federal custody,” Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles told CBC News in an email Thursday night. He did not specify where Clark is being held.
Clark, 34, faces charges murder and drug-related felony charges in California. A federal grand jury there last year indicted Clark and nine other Canadians in a cocaine-smuggling network allegedly led by Ryan Wedding, a former Team Canada Olympian. The group was also linked to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.
The Thunder Bay, Ont.-born Wedding is listed as one of the FBI’s most-wanted fugitives. Clark was arrested in October at a restaurant in the Guadalajara area, in a dramatic daytime operation involving the Mexican Navy.
Multiple aliases
“This person is tied to the transfer of fentanyl and methamphetamine, as well as arms trafficking and the commercialization of synthetic drugs between Mexico, the U.S., Canada, Ecuador and Colombia,” Mexico’s security minister Omar Garcia Harfuch said after Clark’s arrest.
A U.S. indictment lists 17 aliases for Clark, including “The Dictator” and “el niño problemático,” or “the problem child.”
The large-scale extradition operation announced on Thursday came after the U.S. designated major Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
“This Department of Justice is devoted to destroying cartels and transnational gangs,” U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “We will prosecute these criminals to the fullest extent of the law.”
The FBI tells CBC News it has been receiving tips on the possible whereabouts of Canadian former Olympic snowboarder and suspected drug lord Ryan Wedding who is also wanted in connection with three Toronto-area murders.
Investigators have said Clark and Wedding ordered multiple murders in Ontario, including the mistaken-identity shootings of an Indian couple visiting their children in Caledon in November, 2023. Their daughter was also shot 13 times but survived.
According to U.S. prosecutors, Wedding’s alleged $1 billion US network shipped tonnes of Colombian cocaine through Mexico to stash houses in California, and onto Canada. “They would use contract killers to assassinate anyone who they saw as an obstacle to their operation,” then-U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said last fall.
Court documents suggest Clark used an encrypted messaging app to send a hit list to a Toronto-based gunman nicknamed “Mr. Perfect.” The first reported target, a reputed drug trafficker was shot in his Niagara Falls, Ont. driveway last April and later died in hospital.
Self-described elevator mechanic
How Clark — who as recently as April, 2020 described his occupation as elevator mechanic — appears to have risen through the ranks in the world of Mexican drug cartels is not clear.
He was featured in a Toronto Life magazine article in April, 2020, highlighting how landlords were dealing with the first weeks of the pandemic. Clark said he and his wife had seven tenants in six properties, and that the couple was offering discounted rent for those impacted by COVID-19.
“I wanted to show our tenants that I care about them, not just about them paying me,” he said in an email seen by CBC. “We are lucky I have a good job and we are very frugal.”
Public records suggest Clark has not yet appeared in a U.S. court to respond to the allegations.
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