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

Ryan Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder, was arrested in Mexico City and is being transported to the U.S. to face charges including cocaine trafficking and murder. Wedding, who had been on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list since 2025, is accused of playing a major role in a drug network that shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico to the U.S. and Canada, coordinating with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel. U.S. Treasury officials previously highlighted that Wedding's organization heavily relied on cryptocurrency and stablecoins, such as USDT, to finance operations and launder drug proceeds across multiple blockchains including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, Solana, and BNB Chain. Wedding is also accused of ordering the killing of a federal witness in Colombia and directing retaliatory shootings related to stolen drug shipments.

(Source：The Block)