{"id":1559989,"date":"2025-08-23T15:05:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T19:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1559989"},"modified":"2025-08-23T15:05:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T19:05:00","slug":"canadas-refusal-to-cooperate-with-dea-on-fentanyl-superlab-investigation-fueled-cross-border-tariffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/canadas-refusal-to-cooperate-with-dea-on-fentanyl-superlab-investigation-fueled-cross-border-tariffs\/1559989\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada’s Refusal To Cooperate With DEA On\u00a0Fentanyl “Superlab” Investigation Fueled Cross-Border Tariffs\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canada’s Refusal To Cooperate With DEA On\u00a0Fentanyl “Superlab” Investigation Fueled Cross-Border Tariffs\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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President Trump’s new hemispheric defense strategy,\u00a0stretching across North, Central, and South America,\u00a0now includes the deployment of 4,000 troops and three guided-missile destroyers positioned in international waters off Venezuela, as part of a broader campaign to dismantle\u00a0command-and-control hubs of\u00a0narco-terrorists and\u00a0purge Chinese-linked drug and money-laundering networks from the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last week, the Pentagon positioned three Aegis guided-missile destroyers (the USS Gravely, USS Jason Dunham, and USS Sampson) directly off the coast of\u00a0Venezuela as new force posturing takes hold in the region,\u00a0with the Pentagon’s crosshairs focused on narco-terrorists fueling America’s drug death crisis that claims 100,000 lives per year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Simultaneously, attention turns to\u00a0Canada, which, like Mexico and other surrounding countries, remains a very weak\u00a0partner in the region as the Trump administration advances its hemispheric defense strategy to clean up the Americas ahead of the 2030s. Trump’s cleanup of the Western hemisphere is almost comparable to his micro efforts to\u00a0restore law and order in crime-ridden Washington, D.C. – and soon, in many other cities nationwide left in ruins by failed\u00a0Democratic leadership that allowed violent crime and open-air drug markets to flourish.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sam Cooper of the investigative outlet The Bureau<\/a><\/em> has uncovered in recent years that\u00a0North America’s fentanyl crisis is not just a\u00a0drug death crisis wiping out military-aged men and women by the hundreds of thousands – it’s also a\u00a0sprawling international money-laundering machine, run through Chinese Triads, Mexican cartels, and Canadian financial networks in a massive transnational crime web that fuels the crisis.\u00a0Some view this operation to subvert Washington as Chinese irregular warfare, explained here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cooper’s work, as we’ve covered in recent years, spans Chinese narcos using laundering networks via TD bank and other Canadian financial institutions to “Breaking Bad-style” superlabs in Canada to all things China subverting the Americas…\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chinese Narcos In Toronto Run “Command & Control” Fentanyl Laundering Network Used In TD Bank Case: U.S. Investigator<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Canadian Banks Linked To Chinese Fentanyl Laundering Risk U.S. Treasury Sanctions After Cartel Terror Designation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Busted Fentanyl Super Lab In Canada Makes “Breaking Bad Look Minor League”: Former Trump Official<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Chinese Intel-Linked Bankers Reportedly Fundraised For L.A. Mayor Karen Bass<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Brookfield’s Deep Ties To Chinese Land, Loans & Green Deals<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Cooper’s latest report focuses on how\u00a0Canada’s federal police (RCMP) refused to cooperate with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 2022 on a probe into a British Columbia fentanyl “superlab” tied to Chinese precursor shipments.\u00a0It was only after the\u00a0U.S. Treasury sanctioned Iranian-Canadian businessman Bahman Djebelibak and his Health Canada\u2013licensed Valerian Labs that\u00a0the RCMP belatedly launched its own\u00a0investigation, without sharing critical information with the U.S. Gov’t.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The superlab in\u00a0Falkland, B.C. was eventually raided and dismantled, with investigations suggesting the lab was able to produce drugs on an industrial scale:<\/p>\n

Drugs: 54kg fentanyl (95 million lethal doses), 390kg meth, 35kg cocaine, 15kg MDMA.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Last year,\u00a0Derek Maltz, Acting DEA Administrator, commented on the botched\u00a0RCMP investigation, blasting the RCMP: “The way they conducted business was disgusting, honestly. We can’t have that kind of activity when our countries are being attacked at levels we’ve never seen.”<\/p>\n

Former current and senior U.S. officials told Cooper that Ottawa’s problem isn’t just incompetence – it’s structural. Weak, antiquated laws. It appears politics paralyze leadership, and corruption runs all the way to the top.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the investigation into the\u00a0Falkland raid was a dark reality:\u00a0Chinese underground bankers in Vancouver and Toronto move hundreds of millions through Canadian and U.S. banks, laundering cartel money and financing fentanyl labs. None of this is new, but what is, in the era of Trump, will all be dismantled.<\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0Heritage Foundation<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Fast forward today, Ottawa has learned the hard way with a tariff war with Trump, following years of inaction and botched investigations into\u00a0fentanyl superlabs in its country that fuel America’s drug death crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here’s an excerpt of Cooper’s latest report:<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s federal police refused to investigate or cooperate with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration<\/strong> on a British Columbia fentanyl superlab probe tied to chemical-precursor shipments from China into Vancouver in late 2022, according to senior U.S. officials. More than a year later \u2014 only after the U.S. Treasury\u00a0sanctioned<\/a>\u00a0Iranian-Canadian businessman Bahman Djebelibak and his Health Canada\u2013licensed company Valerian Labs, naming them as part of a Chinese fentanyl trafficking syndicate that Washington sought to disrupt \u2014 did the RCMP finally open a siloed investigation. The force continued to refuse coordination or information sharing with the American agents who had initiated the case. In an exclusive interview, Derek Maltz, DEA Acting Administrator in 2025 with oversight of the matter, called the B.C. superlab case a \u201cmajor disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

This explosive information, confirmed to\u00a0The Bureau<\/em>\u00a0by current and former senior\u00a0U.S. officials,<\/a>\u00a0has never before been reported in the Falkland, B.C., superlab case<\/strong>, which was\u00a0covered internationally<\/a>\u00a0by outlets including\u00a0The New York Times.<\/em>\u00a0It amounts to a rare public rebuke that elevates the matter from a Canadian policing failure into a high-consequence geopolitical dispute.<\/p>\n

It also helps explain Washington\u2019s decision on July 31 to impose 35 percent tariffs on Canada<\/strong>, reinforcing President Donald Trump\u2019s claim that senior officials had warned him Ottawa failed to cooperate or devote sufficient resources to interdictions against Chinese- and Mexican-linked drug trafficking networks blamed for killing hundreds of thousands of North Americans. Three weeks ago, in a statement underscoring intelligence tied to the Falkland lab case, the White House said: \u201cMexican cartels are increasingly operating fentanyl labs in Canada.\u201d It added: \u201cCanada-based drug trafficking organizations maintain robust \u2018super labs,\u2019 mostly in rural and dense areas in western Canada, some of which can produce 44 to 66 pounds of fentanyl weekly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018A major disaster on that big lab in British Columbia\u2019<\/strong><\/em><\/h4>\n

In multiple interviews with senior officials \u2014 including Derek Maltz, who retired this year after Mexico carried out an unprecedented wave of extraditions of dozens of cartel leaders to the United States \u2014\u00a0The Bureau<\/em>\u00a0confirmed devastating details of the Falkland superlab in British Columbia, hidden in mountainous terrain between Vancouver and Calgary. The case became public only in October 2024 \u2014 to the surprise of DEA investigators \u2014 when the RCMP announced it had dismantled what it called the most sophisticated drug laboratory ever uncovered in Canada, capable of producing up to 95 million potentially lethal doses of fentanyl. Investigators seized a staggering half-ton of narcotics: 54 kilograms of fentanyl, 390 kilos of methamphetamine, 35 kilos of cocaine, 15 kilos of MDMA, smaller amounts of cannabis, and large quantities of precursor chemicals from China. Police estimated the street value at about $500 million.<\/p>\n

The raid also exposed the militarized posture of Mexican cartel\u2013style operations, with 89 firearms \u2014 including handguns, AR-15-style rifles and submachine guns, many loaded \u2014 along with explosive devices, ammunition, silencers, high-capacity magazines, body armor, and roughly $500,000 in cash. So far, only a man named Gaganpreet Singh Randhawa, believed to be a lower level suspect, has been charged after the RCMP\u2019s raid on the Falkland lab and related Vancouver-area properties. What Ottawa failed to share with Canadians, U.S. sources say, is that the DEA\u2019s Newark, New Jersey office had already delivered the case to Canadian authorities through the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa nearly two years earlier \u2014 warning of precursor shipments tied to Djebelibak\u2019s company, Valerian Labs. Canadian police, the officials said, not only declined to cooperate but also delayed launching their own siloed probe until after Washington imposed sanctions on Djebelibak in October 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way they conducted business was disgusting<\/strong>, honestly,\u201d Maltz said in an August 2025 interview. \u201cAnd we can\u2019t have that kind of activity when our countries are being attacked at levels that we\u2019ve never seen in the history of our countries.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Maltz, who limited his remarks to high-level confirmations, agreed with numerous other U.S. officials interviewed by\u00a0The Bureau<\/em>\u00a0that the Falkland breakdown was neither isolated nor new \u2014 but part of a recurring pattern of refusal and delay in Ottawa\u2019s dealings with American law enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the years, we\u2019ve had historical issues with the RCMP not sharing properly, and most recently there was a major disaster that happened on that big lab in British Columbia,\u201d Maltz confirmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe superlab was part of some ongoing stuff going on with DEA New Jersey. There was a major frustration with the DEA agents in the United States that had investigative equity and investigative knowledge on this particular case. And we were trying to share and cooperate. And it was a major problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like other senior U.S. experts interviewed by\u00a0The Bureau\u00a0<\/em>this year regarding Canada\u2019s increasing exploitation by Chinese and Mexican fentanyl networks, Maltz said Ottawa\u2019s repeated inability to investigate and prosecute major drug trafficking and money laundering networks \u2014 and its frequent refusal to cooperate with international allies \u2014 stems from a combination of weak, outdated laws and ineffective leadership.<\/p>\n

Other U.S. and Canadian police experts also warned they believe the RCMP and relevant Canadian agencies\u00a0such as Canada Border Services suffer<\/a>\u00a0from significant corruption concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt goes down to the basic information sharing, the antiquated laws, that people are not stepping up and not leading the efforts,\u201d Maltz said of the Falkland lab case. \u201cWhen I was Acting Administrator, I met with the current leadership and it was actually sad because these guys came to see me and they want to do the right thing. They say all the right things, but they\u2019re so far behind and the laws are so antiquated and so archaic.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview, Donald Im, who retired in 2022 after a long career as a senior DEA official, described the synthetic narcotics overdose crisis in North America \u2014 fueled by Chinese Communist Party chemical suppliers and cartel distribution networks \u2014 as a \u201cslow motion, weapons of mass destruction that exposes the vulnerability of whole nations and regions.\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of the DEA\u2019s Special Operations Division, Im oversaw sprawling investigations into global Chinese money laundering systems and fentanyl precursor supply chains. He said he provided support to the New Jersey DEA probes that became a linchpin of the agency\u2019s strategy and indirectly tied into the Falkland superlab case. These investigations exposed how Chinese underground bankers \u2014 often operating from\u00a0Vancouver and Toronto\u00a0<\/a>\u2014 were moving staggering nine-figure flows \u2014 in some cases, hundreds of millions within months \u2014 through U.S. and Canadian financial institutions, as well as through international\u00a0trade routes between China, Mexico, Canada,\u00a0<\/a>and South America, to sustain the fentanyl trade.<\/p>\n

Those innovative cases, Im said, connected\u00a0Chinese<\/a>\u00a0laundering networks across North America to an extraordinarily wide array of actors, demonstrating that seemingly local probes connected to the same global syndicates moving precursors from China, laundering through Canadian and U.S. banks, and producing fentanyl on an industrial scale in hidden labs across Canada.<\/p>\n

Im added, in his opinion: \u201cIf only one person was arrested in that sophisticated Falkland laboratory? It is either the RCMP is incompetent or, politically, they\u2019ve been neutered.\u201d<\/p>\n

That assessment is supported by\u00a0previous case studies.<\/a>\u00a0Another source for this story \u2014 deeply troubled by the RCMP and Canadian prosecutors\u2019 decisions not to pursue major targets uncovered in probes of drug-laundering networks tied to Chinese, Iranian, and Mexican syndicates \u2014 said they learned the RCMP, while conducting a major investigation into Iranian state-linked drug launderers in Toronto and Montreal, stumbled onto a Chinese suspect moving $600 million in just six months. Yet when briefed, the DEA was told the RCMP would not pursue the case, citing a different investigative focus.<\/p>\n

We reached out to the RCMP. They said \u201cNo\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/h4>\n

While Derek Maltz spoke only at a high level about Washington\u2019s concerns with Ottawa\u2019s handling of the Falkland case, another U.S. official provided a more detailed account of the behind-the-scenes drama between American and Canadian agencies.<\/p>\n

The U.S. government source, who had direct knowledge of the case and requested anonymity due to ongoing investigations, said that in late 2022 the DEA\u2019s Newark, New Jersey office alerted colleagues at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa to precursor shipments from China bound for Valerian Labs, Inc., a Port Coquitlam\u2013based company owned by Bahman Djebelibak, publicly known as \u201cBobby Shah” …\u00a0<\/p>\n

The rest of the report can be viewed on The Bureau’s Substack<\/a>…\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nSat, 08\/23\/2025 – 11:05<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/canadas-refusal-cooperate-dea-fentanyl-superlab-investigation-fueled-cross-border<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canada’s Refusal To Cooperate With DEA On\u00a0Fentanyl “Superlab” Investigation Fueled Cross-Border Tariffs\u00a0\u00a0 President Trump’s new hemispheric defense strategy,\u00a0stretching across North, Central, and South America,\u00a0now includes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1559990,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1559989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbimBl-6xP7","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/08\/Gy_SjWFboAAWJVa-PKZA3E.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1559989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1559989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1559989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1559990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1559989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1559989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1559989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}