The Toronto man often called “The Dictator”— accused of orchestrating a number of 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 amongst 29 cartel-linked defendants taken into U.S. custody from Mexico on Thursday, in response to the U.S. Department of Justice.
“I can affirm Clark is in the US and in federal custody,” Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesperson for the U.S. Legal professional’s workplace in Los Angeles instructed CBC Information in an e-mail Thursday night time. He didn’t specify the place Clark is being held.
Clark, 34, faces fees homicide and drug-related felony fees in California. A federal grand jury there final 12 months indicted Clark and 9 different Canadians in a cocaine-smuggling community allegedly led by Ryan Marriage ceremony, a former Workforce Canada Olympian. The group was additionally linked to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.
The Thunder Bay, Ont.-born Marriage ceremony is listed as one of many FBI’s most-wanted fugitives. Clark was arrested in October at a restaurant within the Guadalajara space, in a dramatic daytime operation involving the Mexican Navy.
A number of aliases
“This particular person is tied to the switch of fentanyl and methamphetamine, in addition to arms trafficking and the commercialization of artificial medication between Mexico, the U.S., Canada, Ecuador and Colombia,” Mexico’s safety minister Omar Garcia Harfuch mentioned after Clark’s arrest.
A U.S. indictment lists 17 aliases for Clark, together with “The Dictator” and “el niño problemático,” or “the issue youngster.”
The big-scale extradition operation introduced on Thursday got here after the U.S. designated main Mexican drug cartels as overseas terrorist organizations.
“This Division of Justice is dedicated to destroying cartels and transnational gangs,” U.S. Legal professional Basic Pamela Bondi mentioned in an announcement. “We’ll prosecute these criminals to the fullest extent of the regulation.”
The FBI tells CBC Information it has been receiving recommendations on the attainable whereabouts of Canadian former Olympic snowboarder and suspected drug lord Ryan Marriage ceremony who can be needed in reference to three Toronto-area murders.
Investigators have mentioned Clark and Marriage ceremony ordered a number of murders in Ontario, together with the mistaken-identity shootings of an Indian couple visiting their kids in Caledon in November, 2023. Their daughter was additionally shot 13 occasions however survived.
In keeping with U.S. prosecutors, Marriage ceremony’s alleged $1 billion US community shipped tonnes of Colombian cocaine by Mexico to stash homes in California, and onto Canada. “They’d use contract killers to assassinate anybody who they noticed as an impediment to their operation,” then-U.S. Legal professional Martin Estrada mentioned final fall.
Court docket paperwork recommend Clark used an encrypted messaging app to ship a success record to a Toronto-based gunman nicknamed “Mr. Excellent.” The primary reported goal, a reputed drug trafficker was shot in his Niagara Falls, Ont. driveway final April and later died in hospital.
Self-described elevator mechanic
How Clark — who as just lately as April, 2020 described his occupation as elevator mechanic — seems to have risen by the ranks on this planet of Mexican drug cartels isn’t clear.
He was featured in a Toronto Life journal article in April, 2020, highlighting how landlords had been coping with the primary weeks of the pandemic. Clark mentioned he and his spouse had seven tenants in six properties, and that the couple was providing discounted lease for these impacted by COVID-19.
“I needed to indicate our tenants that I care about them, not nearly them paying me,” he mentioned in an e-mail seen by CBC. “We’re fortunate I’ve a superb job and we’re very frugal.”
Public information recommend Clark has not but appeared in a U.S. courtroom to reply to the allegations.
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