Toronto man pleads guilty to cocaine smuggling tied to ex-Olympian Ryan Wedding
Rakhim Ibragimov, arrested in California in 2024 while loading cocaine, has accepted a U.S. plea deal. He is set to formally plead guilty on July 8.
Toronto man to plead guilty in U.S. over cocaine network linked to ex-Olympian
A Toronto man has accepted a plea deal in the United States for his role in a cocaine smuggling network allegedly tied to former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding, cbc.ca reports.
Uzbekistan-born Rakhim Ibragimov — known to associates as "the Russian" or "George" — will plead guilty to intent to distribute 375 kilograms of cocaine "for the purpose of transporting it to Canada," according to his plea agreement filed Monday in California's central district federal court.
Ibragimov traveled from Canada to California in April 2024 to oversee a drug shipment, according to an agreed statement of facts included in the deal. He was caught by U.S. authorities in Riverside, near Los Angeles, as he loaded boxes filled with cocaine into his car. He was detained, then allowed to return to Ontario, before Toronto police arrested him again in October 2024.
His second arrest coincided with a broader U.S.-led operation that targeted more than a dozen of Wedding's alleged co-conspirators across Canada, the United States, Mexico and Colombia on charges ranging from drug trafficking to murder.
Wedding himself was still at large at the time. He was arrested earlier this year after roughly a decade as a fugitive. Ibragimov's plea agreement makes no mention of Wedding.
Roughly a year after his initial arrest, Ibragimov agreed to extradition and waived his right to an extradition hearing. The plea deal acknowledges that his decision saved both the U.S. and Canadian governments "significant resources."
The agreement describes Ibragimov's involvement as part of a broader arrangement between a drug trafficking organization and a "drug transportation network" operating through California. That network allegedly intended to distribute "no less than 1,800 kilograms of cocaine" in the United States before exporting it to Canada. The arrangement began at an unknown date and continued until approximately August 2024, court documents state.
The Los Angeles Police Department had previously identified Wedding's network as using the Los Angeles area as a logistics hub for a cocaine and fentanyl smuggling operation valued at $1 billion US.
Ibragimov is scheduled to formally plead guilty on July 8. No sentencing date has been set. His lawyer, Humberto Diaz, did not respond to a request for comment from CBC News.
Source: Google News CA — Crime (EN)