Olympic snowboarder uses Tether to smuggle cocaine

A former Olympian is now a drug lord and prefers to pay for his transactions with USDT. Snowboarder Ryan James Wedding is on the run from police.

In a indictment of the U.S. Department of Justice alleged that ex-professional snowboarder Ryan James Wedding and 15 other suspects allegedly ran a drug cartel. Useful for their activities: the stablecoin USDT from Tether.

According to US authorities, the suspects committed multiple murders and tried to conceal their transactions. They smuggled cocaine worth billions of dollars from Colombia through Mexico to the U.S. and Canada. "Suspect Bonilla offered Wedding and Clark a payment through Tether for two kilos of cocaine," the indictment states. Apparently, QR codes were also sent to drug smugglers to receive payments in USDT.

According to the Justice Department, more than $3.2 million in crypto, more than a ton of cocaine, three firearms, ammunition and $255,400 in cash were seized during the investigation.

Wedding is currently a fugitive. The 47-year-old, who participated for Canada in 2002 to the Winter Olympics, recently lived in Mexico and is now wanted by the FBI. His Olympic biography states that the athlete was sentenced to four years in prison back in 2008 for trying to buy cocaine from an undercover U.S. government agent.

After Bitcoin and Ether, Tether's USDT has the third largest market capitalization of any cryptocurrency. It recently reached a new record of $120 billion, which could mean additional liquidity for the market. USDT is often criticized because the stablecoin is particularly popular among criminals. No surprise: it combines fast and cheap payments with low volatility.