FBI arrests former Olympic athlete Ryan Wedding on suspicion of using encrypted assets to operate a drug network

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has arrested former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding in Mexico City, accusing him of manipulating a transnational drug criminal organization and using cryptocurrency and stablecoins for drug settlement and money laundering. Wedding has been included in the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted Criminals list since 2025, with a bounty of up to $15 million. The US prosecutor claimed that the organization collaborated with the Mexican Sinaloa drug trafficking group to transport hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico and California to the United States and Canada, and conducted fund transfers through blockchain technologies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, Solana, and BNB Chain. In 2024, the US Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on Wedding and its affiliates and companies, freezing multiple encrypted addresses.