The Canadian government is talking about More helicopters and drones are being added to the border to intercept fentanyl shipments as Donald Trump ends his threat to lift crippling economic tariffs.
But Trump ally David Usher says the president should do more. More and more. And as someone who has worked on fentanyl policy for President Trump, he says Canada should make real systemic changes.
He says it’s frustrating to hear Canadians downplay their country’s role in the fentanyl epidemic. a small percentage Some of the contraband seized comes from Canada. There’s more to it than that, he says.
Usher is calling for new laws on extortion, money laundering and information sharing to combat international criminal networks that he says use Canada as a back office.
America’s top experts are criminal financeUsher is Anti-Fentanyl Task Force Sometimes under the Trump administration testified Wrote the fentanyl strategic paper for the U.S. Congress. memo According to what is now reported circulating He is part of the Trump transition team.
By chance he was talking to a Canadian in Vancouver. security summit Just after 3pm PT on Monday, November 25th, the exact moment the president-elect threatened tariffs.
In his first television interview since winning the US presidential election, President-elect Donald Trump doubled down on his threat to impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico. He also vowed to abolish automatic birthright citizenship, carry out mass deportations, and grant amnesty to those imprisoned for the January 6, 2021, attacks on Washington.
He was speaking to a Canadian audience about the need to not only confiscate pills, but wipe criminals’ bank accounts and prosecute unscrupulous bankers.
Usher then checks his phone while someone is talking, social media posts It completely changed politics across the continent. It threatened to impose a 25% tariff on all goods from Canada and Mexico unless they curb fentanyl trafficking and immigration at the U.S. border.
He said the audience seemed shocked and somewhat dismayed by the news.
“They kept asking, ‘Why does Canada need to care about this fentanyl issue?'” said Usher, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C.
First of all, fentanyl is killing thousands of people, so Canada should be careful, he said. canadian and hundreds of thousands american.
But he also said Canada plays a more important role in the fentanyl trade than the country admits, and that role is growing.
“We’ve been telling the Canadian government this for years.”
“The money laundering that makes drug trafficking work primarily flows out of Canada,” he said, referring specifically to Vancouver and Toronto.
“Canada has been reluctant on this and has not been a particularly effective partner.
“We’ve been telling the Canadian government this for years. Frankly, we’ve had very little cooperation. Now that Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs, it’s time for the prime minister and others to I think it’s time for people to take action.”
Canadian officials who met with the Trump campaign at Mar-a-Lago did say It appeared with the impression that That the next president really cares about fentanyl.
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc gives inside information about the Mar-a-Lago dinner between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and US President-elect Donald Trump as Canada seeks to counter the threat of proposed 25% tariffs. provided.
What Canadians didn’t know, and still don’t know, is what Trump actually wants. He did not say specifically whether he was seeking increased security at the actual border or changes to the system favored by Mr. Usher.
Usher has made it clear that he cannot answer for Trump and does not speak for him. He said he knew some sort of border statement would be made by the president-elect because he is close to many members of the incoming administration.
But he didn’t know the statement contained a threat to impose tariffs, or that its timing would coincide with events in Canada.
David Luna, who attended the Vancouver meeting, said there was “a huge silence in the room” the moment Usher announced the tariff threat. he used to guided U.S. State Department efforts against narcotics, money laundering, and organized crime.
”[The reaction was]”This is true.”
Article: Canada is a money laundering capital
Luna co-created the report He calls Canada the center of the world’s largest criminal network, which includes Mexico, China, Iran and Russia, and uses the country as a safe haven for money laundering and as a source of encrypted phone technology. said.
The CEO of a Washington encrypted phone company has drawn attention to the use of Canadian-based encrypted communications by criminal organizations. was arrested and as a result, indictment and conviction Director of the RCMP’s Information Coordination Center.
Senior Mountie Cameron Ortiz was found guilty. accumulate and leak National secret. Usher mentions this matter bitterly. He noted that his colleagues and all Five Eyes countries regularly shared information with Ortiz.
One of the world’s top drug traffickers, canadian Nationality: Tse Chi Lop arrested In 2021, in transit in Europe on a multinational police operation.
Next, there is the TD Bank incident. banks are facing $3 billion fine This comes after U.S. employees were willing accomplices to Chinese and Mexican gangs that used them to launder drug money, including fentanyl funds.
Asher cited several friends who were appointed to senior positions in the Trump administration’s Justice Department and said they would like to see criminal charges against executives at the bank and other institutions.
Canada’s Toronto-Dominion Bank has pleaded guilty to multiple U.S. money laundering charges and agreed to pay a total fine of approximately US$3.09 billion. U.S. officials say drug traffickers bribed TD employees to launder up to $670 million from fentanyl sales.
Some executives at the bank were aware of the scheme, and current U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said more charges could follow in addition to the two employees already indicted.
One former Canadian police officer said it is depressingly difficult to prosecute such cases in Canada. well-documented evidence About money laundering.
“That’s what Americans are paying attention to,” said Calvin Christie, a former RCMP superintendent in Vancouver who has investigated transnational criminal networks.
“They don’t see a guy crossing the border with a backpack.”
Because, to be fair, if you’re just counting contraband deliveries, Canada really becomes insignificant.
Canada accounts for only 0.2% of fentanyl confiscated Last year, the U.S. transported just 19.5 kilograms at its land border at its northern border; On the other hand, on the south side, it weighs 9,571 kilograms.
Canadian officials have reiterated this point. Sources said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made this point to Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and Canadian officials also made this point in media interviews.
Several experts who spoke at a Washington conference on fentanyl last week said they were absolutely right.
But with an asterisk: “But Canada has a serious problem with organized crime,” Vanda Felbab-Brown told CBC News. she, event He spoke about the North American fentanyl crisis at the Brookings Institution on Wednesday.
What new law?
Even there, Asher said Canadians may be downplaying the country’s growing role in the actual production and export of fentanyl.
Briefing note by Health Canada, Retrieved from CBC Newssaid criminal groups now have an oversupply and may be starting to sell overseas.
This was before the massive collapse of British Columbia’s so-called superlab this fall. Authorities said enough fentanyl and its ingredients were found there to produce in excess. 95 million doses. Asher noted that this is nearly three times Canada’s population and speaks to a growing export business.
B.C. RCMP say officers have taken control of Canada’s “largest and most sophisticated drug superlab.” Police seized nearly $500 million worth of drugs and drug ingredients.
So what does he expect in Canada?
Extortion laws a little similar to the US RICO law. Similar sanctions against banks involved in money laundering Article 311 Asher said he helped draft the USA Patriot Act. More effective use of information in Canadian criminal cases – old and complex problem.
And he’s asking for the student’s expulsion. visaHe says that when international students deposit dirty money in banks, including in the United States, something happens.
“I don’t blame Canada. Canada is a great country. I’m a big fan of Canadian law enforcement. The RCMP is a great partner,” he said.
”[But] We have always run into obstacles when working together. they know a lot. And they confess that there is little they can do given legal restrictions. ”
It’s fixable, he says. He believes relations with President Trump will improve if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau passes more aggressive border legislation.
“I don’t think President Trump has any ill will towards Canada. I think he just feels the deal is unfair.”
