The alleged crime boss often called “The Dictator” — accused of orchestrating the 2023 deadly taking pictures of an harmless couple in Caledon, Ont. — will plead not responsible, his lawyer advised CBC Information.
Andrew Clark is described by U.S. investigators because the “co-leader” of a transnational drug-smuggling empire, alongside former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding ceremony. Wedding ceremony was recently added to the FBI’s record of 10 most-wanted fugitives, with a $10-million US reward supplied for data resulting in his arrest.
Clark, 34, was transferred to U.S. custody final month in an unprecedented Mexican extradition operation focusing on cartel-linked figures. Closely armed troops in pickup vans descended on a shopping center restaurant within the Guadalajara space for Clark’s arrest in October, in response to social media video verified by CBC Information.
Clark, who beforehand lived within the Toronto space, made his first look in U.S. federal court docket in Phoenix final week. He’s scheduled to be transported to Los Angeles to face trial on eight felony expenses associated to an alleged cocaine-trafficking conspiracy and 4 killings.
All 4 killings, together with these of the couple in Caledon, occurred in Ontario however are being prosecuted in america since they had been carried out in help of a felony scheme with roots in California.
“This will likely be a not responsible plea,” Clark’s L.A.-based lawyer, Matthew Lombard, mentioned in an e mail.
Property information and on-line posts recommend Clark offered his home in Burlington, Ont., and relocated to Mexico in 2022. In a photograph distributed by U.S. prosecutors, he is seen sporting a Metropolis of Toronto lanyard. A municipal spokesperson declined to say whether or not Clark beforehand labored for the town.
Authorities have mentioned Wedding ceremony and Clark’s alleged $1-billion US community — linked to Mexico’s infamous Sinaloa cartel — used stash homes in California to assist transfer tons of cocaine and fentanyl all through North America.
Particulars of the sprawling FBI investigation, outlined in court docket information, learn like a Hollywood script.
U.S. federal brokers accompanied a former drug trafficker to Toronto, the place he wore a recording gadget to fulfill with suspected co-conspirators at an auto physique store. In California, investigators enlisted the Nationwide Guard to surveil a cocaine deal from an airship.
The RCMP mentioned Wedding ceremony, 43, “continues to pose one of many largest organized crime threats to Canada, whilst a fugitive.”
Investigators mentioned Wedding ceremony and Clark orchestrated the November 2023 killings of Jagtar and Harbhajan Sidhu, an Indian couple visiting their youngsters in Caledon, northwest of Toronto. Their 28-year-old daughter, Jaspreet Kaur Sidhu, witnessed the rampage and was shot 13 instances. She survived however suffered “life-altering accidents,” police mentioned.
Authorities mentioned the harmless household was mistakenly focused over a stolen drug cargo. The gunman has not been recognized.
In court docket paperwork, U.S. prosecutors allege Clark later despatched a Toronto-based hitman often called “Mr. Good” an inventory of targets and organized for him to attend “army coaching” in Mexico final 12 months. Afterward, the alleged gunman, Malik Damion Cunningham, purportedly wrote to Clark: “I’m what you name now ELITE due to you brother.”
Days later in a Niagara Falls, Ont., driveway, Cunningham allegedly fired a single shot to the pinnacle of a reputed cross-border drug trafficker for $100,000, “plus bills.” Encrypted communications recommend Clark equipped the shooter with two Glock handguns and a 2023 Ford Explorer as a getaway automobile, in response to court docket paperwork.
A key FBI informant met with Wedding ceremony and Clark in a Mexico Metropolis Starbucks in January 2024, as a part of the investigation. Based on court docket paperwork, the person wore a wire and recorded Clark explaining he sends two to 3 tonnes of cocaine to Canada monthly, together with 600 kilograms to Alberta.
Wedding ceremony, Clark and 14 different alleged accomplices had been indicted by a federal grand jury in California final 12 months. 4 co-defendants, together with Cunningham, stay in custody in Ontario and face extradition to the U.S.
One other alleged confederate, Gurpreet Singh, is scheduled to look in a downtown Toronto court docket on Thursday as he asks to be launched on bail, pending extradition. U.S. prosecutors have urged in opposition to Singh’s launch, saying he poses a “substantial” flight threat.
“Investigators are conscious that Wedding ceremony continues to site visitors medicine whereas in hiding,” assistant U.S. attorneys Maria Jhai and Lyndsi Allsop wrote in a letter dated Feb. 21 and filed as an exhibit within the Ontario Superior Courtroom of Justice. “Wedding ceremony shouldn’t be granted entry to an extra loyalist via the discharge of Singh on bail.”
The prosecutors allege Wedding ceremony needed to intervene to safe Singh’s launch final summer time, after he was kidnapped by cartel members in Mexico over a $600,000 drug debt.
When you’ve got a information tip associated to this story, contact CBC Information senior reporter Thomas Daigle by e mail: thomas.daigle@cbc.ca.
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