GamblingNews
Toronto trucker who cited gambling debts gets 68 months for cocaine smuggling plot
A US federal court sentenced Rakhim Ibragimov, 49, to five years and eight months for his part in a plan to move 375 kg of cocaine to Canada. He said gambling debts above $300,000 drove him to join the operation.
A Toronto truck driver who told a California court that gambling debts pushed him into drug smuggling has been sentenced to 68 months in prison. Rakhim Ibragimov, 49, pleaded guilty to travelling from Toronto to Los Angeles in 2024 with the intention of transporting 375 kilograms of cocaine back to Canada.
According to Ibragimov, he was struggling with more than $300,000 in gambling debts. Born in Uzbekistan, he accepted responsibility for his actions and described how gambling addiction gradually wrecked his life. He said that before he began gambling he supported his wife and two children and lived as a law-abiding citizen.
Ibragimov allegedly worked for Ryan Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder accused of running a sophisticated drug smuggling operation and suspected of ordering several murders. His plea agreement does not name Wedding, but Ibragimov appears in an indictment that lists Wedding and more than a dozen other alleged associates.
Ibragimov's plea admits that he possessed cocaine with intent to distribute it for transport to Canada. US police detained him after he travelled to California to oversee the shipment. Authorities later let him return to Ontario, where Toronto police re-arrested him in October 2024, leading to the US case.
He spent about a year at the Toronto South Detention Center before agreeing to extradition to the United States. His defense team relied on that time in custody in seeking a lighter sentence. His lawyer, Humberto Diaz, asked the court for two and a half years, arguing that Ibragimov had a limited role in the wider smuggling ring.
The US District Court for the Central District of California instead imposed five years and eight months in prison, well above what the defense requested. The sentence also includes three years of supervised release, with strict conditions, periodic drug tests and counseling sessions.
The investigation focused mainly on the drug trade linking Canada, the United States, Mexico and Colombia. The case nonetheless illustrates how gambling-related harm can lead to serious crime, and the court was not swayed by the defendant's account of mounting debt and addiction.
Based on reporting by GamblingNews.