Canada a 'safe haven' for 'transnational crime networks and their dirty money': U.S. report

 

'Canada remains a financial haven for kingpins, kleptocrats, oligarchs, and corrupt officials to reinvest stolen funds from their countries'

OTTAWA – Canada has become a “safe haven” and international hub for notorious crime groups as illicit trade in the country is “booming,” according to a report by an American think tank. 

“Canada has become a safe zone for the world’s most notorious crime groups and threat networks that are harming Canada’s national security and imperiling the security of other nations,” warns a report published in late November by the International Coalition Against Illicit Economies (ICAIE).

Production and trafficking or narcotics, fentanyl and fake pharmaceuticals, cross-border money laundering and illegal alcohol are just some of the illicit markets that are growing in Canada and threatening Canadians’ security, the report’s authors highlight. 

“Today, Canada is not merely a consumer of illicit goods and contraband, but increasingly serves as a hub of illicit trade, production and distribution of illicit goods, an exporter of such contraband, and a money laundering safe haven for a potpourri of criminal networks,” wrote authors Calvin Chrustie and David M. Luna. 

“Canada remains a financial haven for kingpins, kleptocrats, oligarchs, and corrupt officials to reinvest stolen funds from their countries in real estate, energy, mining, and other sectors.” 

The report notes that tens of billions of dollars are laundered through Canada annually from the proceeds of crime such as human, drug and weapons trafficking.  

It also says multinational crime syndicates are increasingly setting up shop in Canada.  

“Canada has become a major global refuge for transnational crime networks and their dirty money, including the world’s most notorious networks and their leaders like Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán and the Sinaloa cartel, Chinese drug kingpin Tse Chi Lop, Hezbollah Financier Altaf Khanani, and other bad actors,” reads the report. 

Mexican cartels sell cocaine and methamphetamine to criminal biker gangs in Canada with the help of Iranian and Chinese criminal networks, the report illustrates. On the West coast, Chinese syndicates help smuggle illegal and lethal drugs like fentanyl and heroin through Canada’s borders. 

If such crimes have proliferated across the country, it’s because of a “historic dismissal” of the threat of transnational crime by governments at all levels as well as Canadian law enforcement and intelligence agencies for years, reads the report. 

Canada sorely lacks a federal strategy to both assess the breadth of the problem and co-ordinate its enforcement and intelligence agencies — like the RCMP, CSIS, CBSA and even the military — to fight growing illicit markets. 

The report calls on politicians at all levels to urgently recognize the issue and take action, issuing dozens of recommendations such as creating a Canadian National Security Strategy and prioritizing severing the flow of illegal goods across the country’s borders. 

In an interview, Chrustie — a senior partner at Critical Risk Team consulting firm and a former RCMP senior operations officer — said another key issue is that Canadian laws have not kept up with the times and need significant reform. 

“Stop saying you’re fixing the problem unless you’re having substantive discussions about legal reform, including the Charter, because the other things won’t work,” he said. 

He pointed a finger at rules around disclosure of evidence in trials that he says don’t adequately protect sensitive information and evidence, particularly when it’s obtained from allied intelligence and police agencies such as the FBI. 

“Nothing will change unless we change our disclosure laws to allow us to collaborate and co-operate with our foreign partners, because our laws don’t allow us to protect their information and their intelligence,” he said, singling out the 1991 Supreme Court ruling that compels prosecutors to disclose “all relevant information” to the defence in criminal cases. 

He said another issue is that Canada has a “national” police force in the RCMP, but not a “federal policing” force that is focused on fighting modern crimes of national significance, like the drug trade or money laundering. 

In other words, the government needs to get the RCMP out of contract policing in provinces and let it focus on federal policing. 

“You don’t see (the U.S.) Drug Enforcement Agency agents doing highway patrol. You don’t see the DEA arresting drunks. The DEA are targeting the Triad and the cartels for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years. They take it seriously, they know it’s very difficult,” Chrustie said. 

“The people (at the RCMP) are fantastic, but it’s just not sustainable,” he added. “The model is broken.”