Canadian fugitive Ryan Wedding's lieutenant to plead not guilty to murder, drug charges: lawyer
CBC
The alleged crime boss known as "The Dictator" — accused of orchestrating the 2023 fatal shooting of an innocent couple in Caledon, Ont. — will plead not guilty, his lawyer told CBC News.
Andrew Clark is described by U.S. investigators as the "co-leader" of a transnational drug-smuggling empire, alongside former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding. Wedding was recently added to the FBI's list of 10 most-wanted fugitives, with a $10-million US reward offered for information leading to his arrest.
Clark, 34, was transferred to U.S. custody last month in an unprecedented Mexican extradition operation targeting cartel-linked figures. Heavily armed troops in pickup trucks descended on a shopping mall restaurant in the Guadalajara area for Clark's arrest in October, according to social media video verified by CBC News.
Clark, who previously lived in the Toronto area, made his first appearance in U.S. federal court in Phoenix last week. He is scheduled to be transported to Los Angeles to stand trial on eight felony charges related to an alleged cocaine-trafficking conspiracy and four killings.
All four killings, including those of the couple in Caledon, occurred in Ontario but are being prosecuted in the United States since they were carried out in support of a criminal scheme with roots in California.
"This will be a not guilty plea," Clark's L.A.-based lawyer, Matthew Lombard, said in an email.
Property records and online posts suggest Clark sold his house in Burlington, Ont., and relocated to Mexico in 2022. In a photo distributed by U.S. prosecutors, he is seen wearing a City of Toronto lanyard. A municipal spokesperson declined to say whether Clark previously worked for the city.
Authorities have said Wedding and Clark's alleged $1-billion US network — linked to Mexico's notorious Sinaloa cartel — used stash houses in California to help move tons of cocaine and fentanyl throughout North America.
Details of the sprawling FBI investigation, outlined in court records, read like a Hollywood script.
U.S. federal agents accompanied a former drug trafficker to Toronto, where he wore a recording device to meet with suspected co-conspirators at an auto body shop. In California, investigators enlisted the National Guard to surveil a cocaine deal from an airship.
The RCMP said Wedding, 43, "continues to pose one of the largest organized crime threats to Canada, even as a fugitive."
Investigators said Wedding and Clark orchestrated the November 2023 killings of Jagtar and Harbhajan Sidhu, an Indian couple visiting their children in Caledon, northwest of Toronto. Their 28-year-old daughter, Jaspreet Kaur Sidhu, witnessed the rampage and was shot 13 times. She survived but suffered "life-altering injuries," police said.
Authorities said the innocent family was mistakenly targeted over a stolen drug shipment. The gunman has not been identified.
In court documents, U.S. prosecutors allege Clark later sent a Toronto-based hitman known as "Mr. Perfect" a list of targets and arranged for him to attend "military training" in Mexico last year. Afterward, the alleged gunman, Malik Damion Cunningham, purportedly wrote to Clark: "I am what you call now ELITE thanks to you brother."
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