It’s long been an open secret in Canadian law enforcement circles: Chinese Triads have been moving people, weapons, and drugs over the the border and into the United States with impunity for decades.
And yet the government in Ottawa has largely failed to act on repeated warnings by a number of Canadian security officials over the years.
‘He has stopped all the border crossings. So where’s all the fentanyl coming from still? Where’s the trafficking coming from still?’
President Donald Trump has brought renewed attention to lax border security, using tariffs as a stick to prompt action.
Now Trump-appointed FBI Director Kash Patel is amplifying his boss’ message: Forget Mexico. America’s most pressing border security concern is to the north.
‘Step up’
During an interview with Fox News host Maria Bartrimono last weekend, Patel brushed aside concerns about Trump’s “51st state” rhetoric and urged Canada to “step up” and take responsibility for its border security.
Of the 300 known or suspected terrorists to illegally enter the U.S. in 2024, 85% came via Canada, Patel claimed.
Noting that Trump has effectively “sealed” the Mexican border, the FBI boss also contended that Canada must be the source of the fentanyl that continues to be smuggled into the U.S.
“In the first two, three months that we have been in the seat under Donald Trump’s administration, he has sealed the border. He has stopped border crossings. So where’s all the fentanyl coming from still? Where’s the trafficking coming from still?” Patel asked rhetorically.
He quickly supplied the answer: “The northern border.”
Booming business
Patel identified two distinct roles that Canada plays in the international drug trade: a destination for smuggled fentanyl ingredients and a haven for illegal labs transforming those ingredients into fentanyl.
“Our adversaries have partnered up with the [Chinese Communist Party] and others — Russia, Iran — on a variety of different criminal enterprises, and they’re going and they’re sailing around to Vancouver and coming in by air.”
Patel’s remarks have been largely confirmed by Canadian investigative journalist Sam Cooper, who has done extensive reporting on how fentanyl precursors arrive from China at the Vancouver port, where the shipments are undetected. The precursors are then moved to drug production plants in the interior of British Columbia, where the fentanyl is produced.
Under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Canadian government showed little interest in interrupting his process until last December, when tariff pressure from Trump helped persuade Trudeau to announce a $900 million border security plan.
Cozy with China
Trudeau successor Mark Carney has has talked about bolstering border security but has yet to allocate a penny more. There is no budget expected from his government until sometime in the fall.
Carney’s close ties with China may complicate any attempts to crack down on that country’s alleged infiltration of Canadian ports.
As I wrote here last month, Carney has advocated for replacing the U.S. dollar with the Chinese yuan as the global currency. While serving in Beijing as the special economic adviser to then-Prime Minister Trudeau, Carney also secured a $276 million (CDN) loan from the Chinese central bank in October 2024 for Brookfield Asset Management, a company he chaired at the time.
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