Former Canadian Olympian Ryan Wedding Arrested in Major U.S. Crypto Drug Trafficking Case

U.S. authorities have arrested former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding, bringing an end to a years-long international manhunt for a figure they allege became a major cocaine trafficker who used cryptocurrency networks to launder illicit proceeds. Wedding, once a competitive athlete representing Canada on the global stage, is now accused of running a violent drug trafficking organization tied to the Sinaloa Cartel.

The arrest took place on Friday, according to U.S. officials, after Wedding was captured in Mexico and extradited to the United States. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi described him as a “onetime Olympian snowboarder-turned alleged violent cocaine kingpin,” underscoring the dramatic fall from sports fame to organized crime allegations. Wedding had been listed among the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s top ten most wanted fugitives, facing accusations that include large-scale cocaine trafficking and involvement in murder.

FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed the arrest in a statement shared on social media platform X, noting that the capture marked a significant blow to international drug trafficking operations. Investigators allege that Wedding’s criminal enterprise relied heavily on cryptocurrency to move and conceal profits from narcotics sales, making use of digital assets to obscure financial trails and launder large sums of money.

In November, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on Wedding, citing his role in drug trafficking and his use of cryptocurrency networks to hide illicit wealth. Treasury officials said his organization exploited digital currencies to move proceeds across borders, complicating enforcement efforts and highlighting the growing intersection between crypto and organized crime.

Now 44 years old, Wedding once competed for Team Canada at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, where he finished 24th in his snowboarding event. A year earlier, he had earned a silver medal at the Junior World Championships, signaling a promising athletic career that ultimately took a very different path.

Wedding has been flown to the United States, where he is expected to face federal charges. The case adds to a growing number of high-profile prosecutions involving cryptocurrency, drug trafficking, and international criminal networks, reinforcing U.S. authorities’ focus on targeting the misuse of digital assets in organized crime.