FBI arrests former Olympic athlete for allegedly operating a multinational cocaine trafficking network using cryptocurrency

The FBI has arrested former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding in Mexico City. The U.S. accuses him of orchestrating a transnational drug trafficking organization and extensively using cryptocurrencies and stablecoins for drug-related transactions and money laundering.

FBI Director Kash Patel stated that Wedding will be extradited to the United States, facing multiple charges including cocaine trafficking and murder. Wedding has been on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list since 2025, with a reward of up to $15 million. U.S. prosecutors claim that this criminal network, in collaboration with the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico, transported hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico and California to the United States and Canada.

The U.S. Treasury previously noted that the organization moved funds through multiple blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, Solana, and BNB Chain, involving stablecoin payments and exhibiting multi-chain money laundering characteristics. In 2024, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on Wedding, his associates, and shell companies, freezing multiple sets of cryptocurrency addresses. Prosecutors also accused him of having directed the murder of informants and orchestrated several violent retaliation actions related to drug trafficking.