TORONTO — New details are emerging linking an alleged transnational drug trafficking ring led by a wanted Olympic athlete to an April homicide in Ontario.

An affidavit filed by a Toronto police officer assigned to the fugitive squad says evidence collected from an alleged ring member’s cellphone shows how the group orchestrated the man’s death.

Documents kept by a Toronto court allege that the network’s second-in-command, Andrew Clark, hired Malik Damion Cunningham to assassinate a list of targets, including one known in court records as RF.

The documents say the two men chatted on the encrypted messaging service Threema before RF was shot and killed outside his Niagara Falls home on April 1.

Last week, Niagara Regional Police said the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had arrested several people in connection with the April 1 killing of 29-year-old Randy Fader.

Clark, Cunningham and former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan James Wedding were named in a California indictment filed against 16 suspects who allegedly transported large shipments of cocaine across North America and orchestrated several murders.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published October 26, 2024.

The Canadian Press