Ryan Marriage ceremony, a former Olympian became alleged drug kingpin, was once named to the FBI’s Ten Maximum Sought after listing lately. A $10 million praise was once introduced for his seize.
In January, Rolling Stone detailed how Marriage ceremony went from a skiing prodigy who raced for Canada within the 2002 Salt Lake Town Olympics to the highest of a drug trafficking empire that allegedly transported up to $1 billion in cocaine a yr from Colombia to Canada.
Marriage ceremony has necessarily been at the run since 2015, when he was once known by way of police as “El Chapo’s guy” in Canada, and implicated in a large-scale cocaine trafficking ring that concerned shipment ships out of the Caribbean.
“Whilst we haven’t dominated out different nations, we consider Marriage ceremony is living in Mexico and perhaps dwelling below the safety of the Sinaloa drug cartel,” stated Akil Davis, the assistant director in control of the FBI’s Los Angeles Box Place of work, at a press convention lately.
When federal fees towards Marriage ceremony’s group have been first introduced in October, federal legislation enforcement assets informed Rolling Stone that it was once only a topic of time prior to Marriage ceremony was once arrested, or killed — except he may just stay his transportation community up and operating. On Monday, the CBC reported that Marriage ceremony may be very a lot alive, and that he continues to visitors medication whilst in hiding, referencing a three-page memo U.S. federal prosecutors filed in Ontario at a bail listening to associated with considered one of Marriage ceremony’s co-defendants.
That defendant, Gurpeet Singh, is lately in custody in Canada preventing extradition to the U.S. for allegedly coordinating shipments of cocaine for Marriage ceremony.
Throughout a listening to ultimate week, Canadian prosecutors printed that U.S. government have allegedly acquired communications that display Singh travelled to Culiacán, Mexico, the de facto headquarters of the Sinaloa Cartel, ultimate summer time to get to the bottom of a $600,000 debt.
On Aug. 2, 2024, Singh was once abducted, sure, and given until the tip of the day to pay the debt, prosecutors say. And if now not for Marriage ceremony, Singh will have been killed, however over the following 5 days, prosecutors say Marriage ceremony negotiated with cartel leaders for Singh’s free up.
Editor’s selections
Marriage ceremony’s placement at the FBI’s best 10 listing might be tied to the slaying of the federal government’s best witness towards him in Medellín, Colombia, in January. In keeping with Calvi Leon of the Toronto Big name, the witness, who have been running with Marriage ceremony for over a decade, had agreed to testify towards him in 2023, and in January 2024 recorded a dialog with Marriage ceremony’s right-hand guy in Mexico Town all through which they organized cocaine shipments.
However on Jan. 31 of this yr, at round 2:30 p.m., the witness, a 42-year-old Canadian named Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia, was once sitting in a cafe in a shopping mall in Medellín when an individual armed with a handgun and silencer approached and opened hearth, prior to fleeing on a motorbike. By the point police arrived, Acebedo-Garcia was once useless.
Marriage ceremony’s 2d in command, a 34-year-old former elevator mechanic became actual property investor from Toronto named Andrew Clark, have been detained in October and held in a Mexican prison, however on the press convention this morning, the FBI’s Davis stated Clark had inexplicably been launched from prison on bail, and had handiest just lately been recaptured.
Clark was once extradited ultimate week as a part of the ordinary and exceptional switch of 29 high-ranking participants of Mexican cartels to the USA that integrated Rafael Caro Quintero, the so-called Narco of Narcos sought after for the homicide of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in 1985. In keeping with legislation enforcement in Mexico and Canada, Clark was once the “logistical hyperlink” between the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Era cartels.
Similar Content material
“Marriage ceremony, who’s rich, is bad and has connections in very excessive puts,” Davis stated.
Trial is ready for Might 7 for the defendants who allegedly belonged to Marriage ceremony’s group who’re in custody in Los Angeles, which served the “number one hub” for the group’s narcotics operations, stated Alan Hamilton, leader of detectives for the Los Angeles Police Division. Hamilton stated the group moved an estimated 60 lots of cocaine a yr and 5 lots of fentanyl a month during the town.
Along with drug trafficking and conspiracy fees, Marriage ceremony and Clark have additionally been charged with ordering contract killings that ended in 4 deaths in Canada. If convicted, they face a compulsory minimal penalty of existence in federal jail.
