Trump ally on Canada’s fentanyl talk: Not good enough

Trump ally on Canada’s fentanyl talk: Not good enough

The Canadian government is talking about adding helicopters and drones at the border to stop fentanyl shipments so Donald Trump drops his threat of devastating economic tariffs.

But David Asher, a Trump ally, says it should be doing more. Much more. And as someone who’s worked on fentanyl policy for Trump, he says Canada should be making substantive, systemic changes.

He calls it frustrating to hear Canadians downplay their country’s role in the fentanyl epidemic, just because a minuscule percentage of seized contraband comes from Canada. There’s more to it than that, he says.

Asher urges new laws on racketeering, money laundering and intelligence-sharing, to fight international criminal networks that he says use Canada as a back office.

A top U.S. expert on criminal financing, Asher led an anti-fentanyl task force under Trump, has occasionally testified before the U.S. Congress, and has written a fentanyl strategic memo now reportedly circulating among Trump’s transition team. 

It just so happens that he was talking to Canadians at a Vancouver security summit at the very moment the president-elect threatened the tariffs, just after 3 p.m. PT on Monday, Nov. 25.

He was telling his Canadian audience about the need not just to seize pills but to wipe out criminals’ bank accounts, and prosecute crooked bankers.

Asher then checked his phone while someone else spoke and saw the social media post that has upended politics across the continent: A threatened 25 per cent tariff on all goods from Canada and Mexico, unless the countries curb fentanyl trafficking and migration at the U.S. border.

The audience seemed shocked and somewhat dismayed at the news, he said.

“They kept asking, ‘Why should Canada care about this fentanyl issue?'” said Asher, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C.

For starters, he said, Canada should care because fentanyl is killing many thousands of Canadians and hundreds of thousands of Americans.

But furthermore, Canada is a more important player in the fentanyl trade than it acknowledges, he said ��— and its role is growing.

‘We’ve been informing the Canadian government of this for years’

“The money laundering that makes drug trafficking work is largely run out of Canada,” he said, specifically mentioning Vancouver and Toronto.

“Canada has been a reluctant and a not particularly effective partner in this.

“We’ve been informing the Canadian government of this for years. We’ve had very little co-operation, frankly. And it’s time, I think, with Donald Trump’s threat of a tariff, that your prime minister and others take action.”

Canadian officials who met Trump’s team at Mar-a-Lago certainly emerged with the impression that the president-elect indeed cares about fentanyl.

What the Canadians didn’t know — and still don’t know — is what Trump actually wants; he never got specific about whether he’s seeking more security at the actual border, or the systemic changes Asher favours.

Asher makes clear that he can’t answer for Trump and doesn’t speak for him. He said he did know some sort of border statement was coming from the president-elect, as he’s close to numerous members of the incoming administration. 

But he wasn’t aware the statement would include a tariff threat, nor was he aware that the timing would coincide with his Canadian event.

“There was a big silence in the room,” said David Luna, who was at the Vancouver conference, referring to the moment Asher announced the tariff threat. He previously led efforts against narcotics, money laundering and organized crime at the U.S. State Department.

“[The reaction was], ‘This is for real.'” 

Paper: Canada a money-laundering hub

Luna co-wrote a report calling Canada a hub for some of the world’s largest criminal networks, from Mexico, China, Iran and Russia, which he says use the country as a safe haven for money laundering, and also as a source of encrypted phone technology.

Criminal gangs’ use of Canadian-based encrypted communications was thrust into the spotlight, when the CEO of an encrypted-phone company in Washington State was arrested, resulting in the prosecution and conviction of the head of the RCMP’s intelligence co-ordination centre.

Senior Mountie Cameron Ortis was found guilty of hoarding and leaking state secrets. Asher refers bitterly to this case; he notes that his colleagues — and all Five Eyes countries — had regularly shared intelligence with Ortis.

One of the world’s top drug traffickers is also a Canadian citizen: Tse Chi Lop, who was arrested during a European layover in a multinational police operation in 2021.

Then there’s the TD Bank case. The bank faces $3 billion US in penalties after employees in the U.S. were willing accomplices to Chinese and Mexican gangs using it to launder drug money — including fentanyl money.

Asher listed several friends who are assigned to top roles in Trump’s Justice Department, saying he hopes they pursue criminal charges against executives at that bank and other institutions.

Some senior executives at the bank were aware of the scheme, and the current U.S. attorney general, Merrick Garland, has said that, atop the two employees already charged, more prosecutions could follow.

One former Canadian officer said it’s depressingly hard to prosecute such cases in Canada, despite well-documented evidence of money laundering.

“That’s what the Americans are looking at,” said Calvin Chrustie, a former RCMP superintendent in Vancouver who has investigated transnational crime networks.

“They’re not looking at the guy crossing the border with a backpack.” 

Because to be fair, if they were simply counting contraband deliveries, Canada would indeed be a negligible player.

Canada accounts for a mere 0.2 per cent of the fentanyl seized by the U.S. at its land borders in the last fiscal year: a mere 19.5 kilograms at the northern border, versus 9,571 kilograms on the southern side.

Canadian officials have been making this point repeatedly. Sources say Trudeau pointed it out to Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and Canadian officials have noted this in media interviews.

Several experts speaking at a Washington conference on fentanyl last week said they’re absolutely right.

But there’s an asterisk: “Canada does have, however, serious problems with organized crime,” Vanda Felbab-Brown told CBC News. She hosted an event on the North American fentanyl crisis at the Brookings Institution on Wednesday.

What new laws?

Even there, Asher said, Canadians may be downplaying the country’s growing role in the actual production and export of fentanyl.

A briefing note by Health Canada, obtained by CBC News, said criminal groups now have an excess supply and may be starting to sell it overseas.

This is before a massive bust of a so-called superlab in B.C. this fall. Authorities said they found enough fentanyl and ingredients there to produce over 95 million doses. That, Asher noted, is the equivalent of almost three times the population of Canada, and speaks to a growing export operation.

So what does he hope to see in Canada?

A racketeering law that’s a bit closer the U.S.’s RICO statute. Sanctions for banks involved in money laundering similar to Section 311 of the U.S. Patriot Act, which Asher said he was involved in drafting. Better use of intelligence in Canadian criminal cases — an old, complicated issue. 

And he’s calling for the revocation of student visas, including in the U.S., for any international student depositing dirty money in a bank, something he’s said happens.

“I am not a blame-Canada guy. Canada’s a great country. I’m a big fan of Canadian law enforcement. The RCMP has been a great partner,” he said.

“[But] we continuously have run into roadblocks when we work together. They know so much. And they confess they can do so little, given the legal limitations.”

It’s fixable, he says. He’s certain that if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were to pass more aggressive border legislation, it’d help the country’s relations with Trump.

“I don’t think President Trump harbours ill will toward Canada. I think he just feels that the deal is unfair.”

Published at Sun, 01 Dec 2024 09:01:00 +0000

Some Syrians in Turkey seek immediate return as Russia grants asylum to ousted dictator Assad

The Kremlin said on Monday Russia has granted political asylum to overthrown Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a decision it said was taken by President Vladimir Putin.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on Assad’s specific whereabouts and said Putin was not planning to meet with him.

Syrian rebels, led by an alliance by Hayat al-Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al-Qaeda affiliate, reached Damascus over the weekend and overthrew Assad’s government following nearly 14 years of civil war. Assad’s overthrow, which appeared unthinkable just two weeks ago, raised hopes for a more peaceful future but also concerns about a potential security vacuum in the country, which is still split among armed groups.

Assad had been Syria’s leader since 2000, succeeding his father, who had been president for three decades.

Peskov said it was too early to say what the future would hold for Russia’s military bases in Syria, adding that it would be the subject of discussion with the new rulers in Damascus.

“This is all a subject for discussion with those who will be in power in Syria,” Peskov said, adding that there was “extreme instability” in the country.

Moscow has used Syria as a staging post to fly its military contractors in and out of Africa.

PM still in his post

Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali, who remained in his post after Assad and most of his top officials vanished over the weekend, has sought to project normalcy.

“We are working so that the transitional period is quick and smooth,” he told Sky News Arabia TV on Monday, saying the security situation had already improved from the day before.

He said the government is co-ordinating with the insurgents, and that he is ready to meet rebel leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani.

Separately, a Syrian opposition war monitor said a top aide to Assad’s brother, Maher, was found dead in his office near Damascus. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was not clear if Maj. Gen. Ali Mahmoud, was killed or died by suicide.

Damascus was quiet on Monday, with life slowly returning to normal while most shops and public institutions were closed. In public squares, some people were still celebrating.

Civilian traffic resumed but there was no public transport. Long lines formed in front of bakeries and other food stores.

There was little sign of any security presence, and Associated Press reporters saw a few SUVs on the side of a main boulevard that appeared to have been broken into. In some areas, small groups of armed men were stationed in the streets.

A video circulating online showed a man in military fatigues holding a rifle attempting to reassure residents of the Mezzeh neighbourhood in Damascus that they would not be harmed.

Syrians in Turkey head to the border

Millions of Syrians fled after the outbreak of its civil war, with some three million settling in Turkey. Hundreds of Syrian refugees gathered at two border crossings in southern Turkey on Monday, eagerly anticipating their return home.

Many arrived at the Cilvegozu and Oncupinar border gates at daybreak, draped in blankets and coats. Some camped by the barriers of the border crossing, warming themselves with makeshift fires or resting on the cold ground.

“I will return to Syria now. Thank God, the war is over,” said 28-year-old Muhammed Zin, at the Cilvegozu border point. He fled Damascus in 2016 and has been living and working in Istanbul.

Authorities set up a checkpoint some five kilometres from Cilvegozu, only allowing Syrians with adequate documentation to advance to the border gate, HaberTurk television reported.

Turkish officials now hope that a significant number of Syrians will return voluntarily.

“We will continue our efforts to ensure the safe and voluntary return of Syrians and to rebuild the country,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Monday.

Hundreds of displaced Syrians were also returning Monday to Syria from Lebanon, with dozens of cars lining up to enter. 

Sami Abdel-Latif, a construction worker and refugee from Hama who was heading to Syria to join his wife and four children, said while the future in Syria is still uncertain, “anything is better than Bashar.”

Israeli military controlling buffer zone

Israelis have welcomed the fall of Assad, who was a key ally of Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, while expressing concern over what comes next.

Israel struck suspected chemical weapons sites and long-range rockets in Syria in order to prevent them from falling into the hands of hostile actors, the foreign minister said Monday.

Israel says its forces temporarily seized a buffer zone inside Syria dating back to a 1974 agreement after Syrian troops withdrew in the chaos.

“The only interest we have is the security of Israel and its citizens,” Gideon Saar told reporters on Monday. “That’s why we attacked strategic weapons systems, like, for example, remaining chemical weapons, or long-range missiles and rockets, in order that they will not fall in the hands of extremists.”

Saar did not provide details about when or where the strikes took place.

An Associated Press journalist in Damascus reported airstrikes in the area of the Mezzeh military airport, southwest of the capital, on Sunday. The airport has previously been targeted in Israeli airstrikes, but it was not immediately clear who launched the latest strike.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria in recent years, targeting what it says are military sites related to Iran and Hezbollah. Israeli officials rarely comment on individual strikes.

Syria agreed to give up its chemical weapons stockpile in 2013, after the government was accused of launching an attack near Damascus that killed hundreds of people. But it is widely believed to have kept some of the weapons and was accused of using them again in subsequent years.

Published at Sat, 07 Dec 2024 15:44:10 +0000