A BC-based fentanyl trafficking gang with global ties was exposed by a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) sting operation at a Vancouver port. The DEA began investigating the case in 2022 and continued through 2023. The affidavit was recently unsealed detailing the investigation.Reported by Sam Cooper, on The Bureau, the affidavit details the gang's operations uncovered through senior operative Indo-Canadian, Opinder Singh Sian, a Canadian national who allegedly leads the Brothers Keepers gang.This gang is known to be a proxy for the Sinaloa cartel in Canada connected to Latin American cartels, Chinese Communist Party chemical suppliers, and the Kinahans — an Irish crime family based in Dubai linked to Hezbollah finance networks. .The files show Vancouver's criminal networks worked in coordination with Chinese precursor organizations, funneling drugs into the US, and have direct ties to methamphetamine deals with Mexican gangsters on LA streets. Sian and his gang organized methamphetamine shipments from LA to Australia, and act as a proxy for senior transnational Mexican, Chinese, and Iranian networks. The affidavit also reveals how an undercover US source known as "Queen" or CS-1 was able to alert the DEA and conduct the sting operation by meeting with a Chinese man named Peter Peng Zhou.Zhou allegedly claimed he “received fentanyl precursor chemicals from China into Vancouver” and “sent 100 kilos of chemicals per month to Los Angeles,” as Cooper reports.."This critical meeting, involving Sian, Zhou, and other associates, provided prosecutors with some of the clearest evidence yet of a direct chemical pipeline from Chinese suppliers into North American distribution networks, routed first through Vancouver’s port and trucking infrastructure," says Cooper. By June 2023, Sian's network began planning to move large methamphetamine shipments into the US, delivering an estimated 500 to 750 kg. In July, Sian created a group chat. In the group Queen asked about fentanyl precursors, requesting prices 1-BOC-4 piperidone and 1-BOC-4 anilinopiperidine. A member named Kular responded, saying the price would be $225 for the first chemical, $750 for the second and $1,000 for shipping.The same month Sian contacted Queen directly and informed him he could provide the chemical precursors directly. He said he could get them "straight from China," reports Cooper..Sian offered Queen a small sample. Queen gave him a DEA-owned PO box to send the sample.Sian then confirmed that he had 20 g of 1-BOC-4-piperidone. He confirmed on August 10 the package wouldn't arrive until a week later.This, "further confirmed the group’s operational capacity to source Chinese precursors and move them into the U.S," says Cooper.This gave the DEA the evidence it needed to execute its sting operation at the Vancouver port.
