A former Canadian Olympic snowboarder is needed within the U.S.
A former Canadian Olympic snowboarder is needed within the U.S. on a number of charges stemming from his alleged involvement in a transnational drug trafficking ring – together with the alleged orchestration of a double homicide that mistakenly focused a “utterly harmless” household in Ontario, authorities stated Thursday.
An indictment filed in California alleges that Ryan James Marriage ceremony, 43, led an organized crime group that moved giant shipments of cocaine from Colombia by way of Mexico and California to Canada and different areas in the USA.
Marriage ceremony, who competed for Canada on the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake Metropolis, had been dwelling in Mexico and is taken into account a fugitive, U.S. authorities stated. The FBI is providing a US$50,000 reward for data resulting in his arrest and extradition to the U.S.
Marriage ceremony – whose aliases embrace “El Jefe” and “Public Enemy” – is going through eight felony charges, together with conspiracy to export cocaine, three counts of homicide in reference to a seamless prison enterprise and one depend of tried homicide. He’s certainly one of 16 individuals charged within the alleged drug ring.
“As alleged within the indictment, an Olympic athlete-turned-drug lord is now charged with main a transnational organized crime group that engaged in cocaine trafficking and homicide, together with of harmless civilians,” U.S. Lawyer Martin Estrada stated in a information launch.
The costs within the indictment haven’t been confirmed in courtroom.
Marriage ceremony and one other Canadian citizen, who was arrested by Mexican authorities earlier this month, are accused of directing the Nov. 20, 2023 murders of two members of a household in Caledon, Ont., in retaliation for a stolen drug cargo.
However the household was not concerned in drug trafficking in any respect and was “utterly harmless,” Ontario Provincial Police Deputy Commissioner Marty Kearns instructed a information convention in Los Angeles on Thursday.
“Our investigation has decided that these three victims had been mistakenly focused,” Kearns stated, referring to the murdered couple and their grownup daughter, who was significantly injured within the capturing.
Kearns stated police proceed to analyze residential shootings in Peel Area, north of Toronto, that look like related.
An April homicide in Niagara area and a Might murder in Peel are additionally related to the alleged drug ring described within the U.S. indictment, authorities stated.
The RCMP stated it labored with the FBI for over a yr to analyze the alleged prison community. Varied legislation enforcement companies throughout Canada, U.S., Mexico and Colombia assisted the investigation.
4 Canadians had been arrested in Ontario this week on the request of American authorities, and one other three Canadians had been arrested within the U.S., the RCMP stated in a information launch. One other Canadian stays at giant, together with Marriage ceremony, it added.
Marriage ceremony faces separate “unresolved” drug trafficking charges in Canada that date again to 2015, stated Chris Leather-based, chief superintendent with the RCMP.
Marriage ceremony was beforehand convicted within the U.S. of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and was sentenced to jail in 2010, federal information present. Estrada stated U.S. authorities consider that after Marriage ceremony’s launch, he resumed drug trafficking and has been protected by the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico.
–With recordsdata from The Related Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Oct. 17, 2024.
Sonja Puzic, The Canadian Press
