Endgame: How Indo-Canadian 'Thanos' fell in DEA's global cartel crackdown
Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) has arrested Indo-Canadian gangster
Opinder Singh Sian
, alias Thanos, for operating a global methamphetamine and fentanyl trafficking network, reported TOI, citing court records.
Sian was taken into custody in Arizona on June 27 following an investigation that connected him to drug shipments to Australia and chemical smuggling for
fentanyl production
in the US through Canada.
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DEA probe uncovers global network
The DEA began tracking Sian in 2022, launching an undercover operation after receiving intelligence from a Turkish agency. A recently unsealed affidavit submitted in a US court stated that Sian had close ties to chemical suppliers associated with the Chinese Communist Party and Mexico's Sinaloa cartel.
The investigation found that Sian was previously a senior member of the Brothers Keepers gang, a British Columbia-based criminal outfit with several members of Punjabi origin. Canadian authorities have linked the gang to large-scale narcotics trafficking, weapons smuggling, murder, extortion, and robbery. The gang has also publicly supported the
Khalistan movement
and participated in events honouring figures such as Talwinder Singh Parmar.
Ties with China, Mexico, and Hezbollah-linked network
In 2023, Sian reportedly introduced a DEA undercover source, codenamed "Queen", to Chinese national Peter Peng Zhou in Vancouver. Zhou, who ran a trucking company with an Indo-Canadian partner, allegedly claimed he could import fentanyl precursors from China and deliver up to 100 kg per month to Los Angeles, as per the TOI report.
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Sian and the undercover agent remained in contact through the encrypted app Threema and coordinated multiple deliveries. According to the DEA, Sian conducted four methamphetamine drops — totalling over 500 pounds — in Southern California before he was arrested.
The DEA further revealed that Sian's network extended to operatives in Turkey and Dubai and had links to the Kinahan crime group, which is under international scrutiny for its ties to Hezbollah.
Sian's criminal record includes surviving an attack in 2008 that killed his associate Gurpreet Sidhu and another attempt on his life in 2011. These incidents marked his rapid rise in Canada's criminal ecosystem.
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