FBI arrests ex-Olympian accused of running crypto-enabled cocaine empire

U.S. authorities have arrested Ryan Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder accused of overseeing a violent transnational drug trafficking organization that prosecutors say relied on cryptocurrency and stablecoins to move and launder cocaine proceeds.

Wedding was taken into custody in Mexico City on Friday and is being transported to the United States to face charges related to cocaine trafficking and murder, FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement posted on X. Wedding had been on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list since 2025, with a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to his arrest.

Authorities allege that Wedding, now 44 years old, played a major role in a sprawling drug network that shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico and Southern California into the U.S. and Wedding's home country of Canada, operating in coordination with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Ties to crypto

While the FBI’s arrest announcement focused on drug trafficking and murder charges, U.S. Treasury officials have previously described cryptocurrency as a central tool used by Wedding’s organization to finance its operations.

In November, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Wedding and a network of associates and front companies, saying the group used crypto to move and launder drug proceeds while concealing the origins of its illicit wealth.

Court filings and Treasury sanctions link the alleged operation to activity across multiple blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, Solana, and BNB Chain. Prosecutors have cited stablecoin payments, including a documented transfer of roughly 17,300 USDT tied to a cocaine deal, but officials have not publicly disclosed the full scope of onchain transactions tied to the network.

Treasury sanctions added a dozen crypto addresses linked to Wedding and his associates, signaling what authorities describe as a multi-chain laundering operation consistent with the scale of the alleged trafficking activity.

Wedding is also accused of ordering the killing of a cooperating federal witness in Colombia in January 2025 and directing retaliatory shootings connected to stolen drug shipments in Canada. A superseding indictment unsealed in June 2024 charged him with operating a continuing criminal enterprise, major drug trafficking offenses, and murder in connection with those activities.