TRM Labs’ Post

Last week, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Department of Justice, and Mexico’s financial intelligence unit, announced sweeping sanctions against Ryan James Wedding — a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned violent international narcotics trafficker — along with nine individuals and nine entities tied to his global criminal network. At the same time, the US unsealed indictments and increased the reward for information leading to Wedding’s capture to as much as USD 15 million. Wedding oversees a transnational cocaine-trafficking empire responsible for multi-ton shipments from Colombia and Mexico into North America, while directing dozens of murders across multiple countries. The sanctions exposed a sprawling architecture of shell companies, luxury assets, and corrupt facilitators operating across Mexico, Canada, Colombia, Italy, and the UK. A major component of the action was the addition of 12 crypto addresses to the SDN list, covering Bitcoin, Ethereum, TRON, BNB Chain, and Solana. These wallets illustrate a cross-chain laundering strategy typical of large narcotics networks—using multiple blockchains, cross-chain routing, and VASP hopping to obscure the source of funds. TRM Labs’ analysis identified significant transactional activity across high-risk exchanges, consistent with attempts to gain liquidity while masking the origin of drug proceeds. Key actors included Edgar Aaron Vazquez Alvarado (“the General”), a former Mexican law-enforcement official who allegedly provided protection and intelligence and used his fuel-sector companies to support the network. Wedding’s wife, Miryam Andrea Castillo Moreno, was designated for laundering funds and facilitating violent activity. In Canada, jeweler Rolan Sokolovski (“Diamond Tsar”) allegedly moved millions in cocaine proceeds through cryptocurrency before converting the funds into jewelry and other luxury assets. In Europe, former Italian special-forces member Gianluca Tiepolo managed a fleet of luxury vehicles — including a USD 13 million Mercedes CLK-GTR — through front companies in Italy and the UK, while operating paramilitary-style training sites for the network’s enforcers. Two associates were also sanctioned for concealing illicit wealth and managing shell entities. The action reflects a broader U.S. effort to disrupt transnational drug traffickers who increasingly rely on cryptocurrency, global facilitators, and multi-jurisdictional financial structures to move and launder illicit proceeds. 📑 Read TRM's in-depth blogpost here: https://lnkd.in/eiUyWYEB 📄 Read TRM's report on cartels here: https://lnkd.in/dpWpwQCQ