Toronto

Toronto-area man sentenced to 68 months in prison for smuggling cocaine allegedly tied to Ryan Wedding

Rakhim Ibragimov pleaded guilty for intent to distribute 375 kg of cocaine earlier this year

A Toronto-area man who pleaded guilty to smuggling cocaine for a drug network allegedly tied to former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding has been sentenced to 68 months — just over five and a half years — in U.S. prison.

Uzbekistan-born Rakhim Ibragimov, known to associates as the “Russian” or “George,” pleaded guilty to intending to distribute 375 kilograms of cocaine “for the purpose of transporting it to Canada,” according to a plea agreement filed in June in California's central district federal court.

U.S. federal Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett handed him his sentence Wednesday.

Toronto man to plead guilty to conspiring to smuggle cocaine for drug network allegedly tied to Ryan Wedding

The sentence includes three years of supervised release with conditions that include periodic drug testing and substance abuse counseling, according to the court records.

U.S. authorities caught Ibragimov in 2024

An agreed statement of facts laid out in Ibragimov's plea deal said he was caught by U.S. authorities in April 2024 after he traveled from Canada to California to oversee a drug shipment.

He was detained and then allowed to return to Ontario before being arrested again in October 2024 by Toronto police.

His arrest came around the same time that U.S authorities moved in on more than a dozen of Wedding’s alleged co-conspirators in Canada, the U.S., Mexico and Colombia for charges that ranged from drug trafficking to murder.

At the time of those arrests, Wedding was still at large. He was arrested earlier this year after a decade on the run.

What we know about Ryan Wedding's alleged Canadian associates

Ibragimov's plea deal did not make mention of Wedding, but his name is listed in an indictment document that includes Wedding and more than a dozen other alleged co-conspirators.

Around a year after his arrest, Ibragimov agreed to be extradited and face his charges in the U.S. Prior to his extradition, he spent around a year at Toronto South Detention Centre, his court records show.

His lawyer, Humberto Diaz, requested that his sentence be reduced to two and a half years given the time he spent at Toronto South, according to a supplemental sentencing filing presented to court. That filing also argued he is entitled to a reduced sentence given his "mitigating role" in the offence.

CBC has reached out to Diaz for comment.

Ryan Wedding's evolution from Olympian to alleged drug kingpin

Alina Snisarenko is a Toronto-based journalist. She currently works as a digital writer for CBC Toronto and has previously worked as an associate producer with CBC Radio's Metro Morning. You can reach her with story ideas or tips at alina.snisarenko@cbc.ca.