A man from the Toronto area has been sentenced to 68 months in a U.S. prison after pleading guilty to smuggling cocaine for a drug network allegedly connected to former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding. Rakhim Ibragimov, originally from Uzbekistan and known as “Russian” or “George” among associates, admitted to intending to distribute 375 kilograms of cocaine for transport to Canada, as stated in a plea agreement filed in June at California’s central district federal court.
U.S. federal Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett delivered the sentence on Wednesday, including three years of supervised release with conditions like periodic drug testing and substance abuse counseling, as per court records. Ibragimov was apprehended by U.S. authorities in April 2024 after traveling from Canada to California to supervise a drug shipment. Subsequently, he was detained, allowed to return to Ontario, and then re-arrested in October 2024 by Toronto police.
Around the same time as Ibragimov’s arrest, U.S. authorities apprehended over a dozen of Wedding’s alleged co-conspirators in various countries on charges ranging from drug trafficking to murder. Wedding, who had been on the run for a decade, was also arrested earlier that year. While Ibragimov’s plea agreement did not mention Wedding, an indictment document lists his name alongside Wedding and other alleged co-conspirators.
Following his arrest, Ibragimov agreed to be extradited to the U.S. and face charges there after spending about a year at Toronto South Detention Centre. His lawyer, Humberto Diaz, requested a reduced sentence of two and a half years, citing his time served in Toronto and his mitigating role in the offense. Attempts to reach Diaz for comment by CBC were unsuccessful.
