This story is a collaboration between Postmedia News and the Investigative Journalism Foundation at theijf.org/.
International criminal groups are increasingly using Canadian ports to export methamphetamine, making Canada an international “source country” for the drug, according to an internal police analysis obtained by Postmedia and the IJF.
An October 2023 report from the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada warned that Canada’s “oversaturated” meth market was pushing manufacturers to export to lucrative markets in Australia and New Zealand.
The document said that the glut of meth is due to an influx of cheap, high-quality methamphetamine from Mexico that is undercutting domestic manufacturers. Some of that Mexican meth is also making its way through Canada’s ports to other countries, the report said.
The document, which reporters obtained through federal Access to Information legislation, said the influx was the result of “entrenched and increasing interconnectivity” between Canadian gangs and Mexican cartels.
“For the foreseeable future, Canada will continue to be a source country for international methamphetamine markets, as well as, increasingly, a destination and transit country for Mexican-sourced methamphetamine,” said the document, which was prepared by a team of law enforcement analysts led by the RCMP.
The document shows federal officials have long known Canada has become a hub for the global meth trade, as detailed earlier this year in an investigative series by Postmedia as well as reports from Canadian border officials and international agencies.
Cpl. Arash Seyed of the RCMP’s federal serious and organized crime unit said this week that police have “seen organized crime groups co-mingling methamphetamine with other exported goods such as maple syrup, canola oil and other Canadian commodities.”
His agency is working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Australian Federal Police and other international agencies “to counter the flow of illicit drugs and precursor chemicals into, and out of Canada.”
Police investigations have forced organized criminals “to adapt and devise more innovative methods of producing and exporting illicit drugs such as methamphetamine across borders and continents.”
That means police are also adapting with new technology and improved investigative techniques, Seyed said.
A report this month by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said Canadian organized crime groups have become top exporters of meth destined for Australia and New Zealand.
The report said Canadian gangs like the Hells Angels, the UN gang and Sam Gor are working with transnational criminal organizations “to transport large amounts of methamphetamine and cocaine through the Pacific to Australia and New Zealand.”
Canada Border Services Agency vice-president Aaron McCrorie said the volume of meth being exported by Canadian gangs highlights the challenges that law enforcement is facing.
“We’re dealing with very sophisticated, I’ll say adversaries, who are constantly evolving in terms of the markets they’re pursuing. They’re constantly evolving in terms of their means of concealment. And so the challenge that we have is to work with partners to do our best to keep ahead of that.”
In response to the increase in meth smuggling to Australia and Oceania, the CBSA has increased searches of outbound containers, he said.
Last year, a report on the infiltration of organized crime at the Port of Vancouver said just one per cent of outbound containers were searched. McCrorie wouldn’t provide a percentage on the number now being screened.
But he said his agency had successes acting on intelligence to interdict tonnes of meth headed to Australia.
“It’s fascinating to see how organized crime, like any business, are exploring their niches and exploiting their connections and exploring their opportunities. There are established networks that are pivoting to new and different markets. I don’t think it implies that Canada is any less secure than other players out there.”
The UNODC document said that in 2022 Canada ranked third behind Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates as a top departure country for meth headed to Australia. No data was included for the last two years.
But Postmedia has reported that a record eight tonnes of outbound meth was intercepted in 2023 in B.C. by the CBSA. Most was seized from containers at the Port of Vancouver and bound for Oceania.
Earlier this month, the CBSA said B.C. agents had made another 60 seizures over a six-month stretch in 2024, totalling 397 kilograms of crystallized meth and 1,278 litres in liquid form.
All was destined for the lucrative Australian market where meth can sell for up to $185,000 a kilo, compared with just a few thousand dollars in Canada.
One of the report’s authors, Inshik Sim, said the volume of methamphetamine coming out of Canada “is quite concerning.”
Both large loads destined for Australia, and smaller amounts trafficked directly to Pacific nations, like Fiji, have contributed to increasing social problems.
“This North American meth problem has really surged over the last few years. I mean, it’s always been at a high level, but I think it is really going up and up and up every year,” he said from Bangkok.
Countries like Fiji are used as transit points, with locals recruited as facilitators by the foreign criminals. Fiji is now dealing with an epidemic of meth use, Sim said.
The UN report, dated Oct. 11, said most of the drugs seized in Fiji originate in the U.S. and Canada, with smugglers using an array of concealment methods.
“Fiji police have also recovered large amounts of drugs that have washed up onshore,” the report also said. “Organized crime groups based in Canada also are sending methamphetamine from British Columbia to Fiji.”
Kalesi Volatabu, founder of Drug Free World Fiji, said this week that “the increasing involvement of Canadian drug traffickers in the transportation of methamphetamine and cocaine through the Pacific region raises significant concerns for Fiji and our neighbouring island nations.”
“As indicated in the report, organized crime groups based in North and South America are now utilizing Pacific routes to transport large quantities of illicit drugs, with Canada emerging as a notable point of origin,” Volatabu said.
She said the “trend underscores the evolving dynamics of drug trafficking and the need for heightened vigilance and proactive measures in our region.”
The movement of Mexican meth through Canada isn’t new. As early as 2016 an internal CBSA bulletin noted that Canada had “been used as a transhipment point for Mexican methamphetamine to Australia.”
But the October 2023 analysis suggests foreign competition has undercut domestic meth producers. It suggested some of those domestic producers may pivot to making fentanyl.
Yvon Dandurand, a professor emeritus of criminology at the University of the Fraser Valley, said he wasn’t surprised that criminal groups were looking to export meth given stiff competition and low prices at home, noting it was exactly how legitimate companies behaved.
“The illicit market behaves exactly like the licit market” Dandurand said.
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