logo
Surrey gangster rises to alleged international drug kingpin

Surrey gangster rises to alleged international drug kingpin

Ottawa Citizen4 days ago
When alleged international drug kingpin Opinder Singh Sian tried to get his purported bride into Canada a decade ago, the immigration appeal board ruled it was a sham marriage.
Article content
The biggest red flag to adjudicator Tim Crowhurst was that the wife, Sukhjeet Kaur Gill, didn't even know Sian had been seriously injured in a 2008 gangland shooting in Surrey. Or that he had a criminal record.
Article content
Article content
Article content
'This background is particularly relevant to this appeal because the applicant was not aware of the appellant's criminal history, nor the shooting, nor his work experience at the time of marriage. The panel finds that this is very important information that would be expected to be shared by two persons entering into a genuine relationship,' Crowhurst said in January 2015, rejecting Sian's appeal to get Gill from India to Canada.
Article content
Article content
Sian is now facing charges in the U.S. that he was the North American leader of an international drug smuggling organization, moving huge amounts of methamphetamine and fentanyl precursors around the globe.
Article content
Article content
Article content
Article content
The Kinahan gang started in Dublin in the 1990s, but is now headquartered in Dubai. It has close ties to Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel. Links to Iran and Hezbollah surfaced during a 2023 cocaine smuggling investigation into the Kinahans.
Article content
Sian is expected to next appear in a U.S. courtroom July 21. The DEA investigation stretched from Ankara, Turkey, to Australia, with confidential sources and undercover agents on the ground in several countries.
Article content
The RCMP's liaison officer in Ankara collaborated with the Americans throughout their probe, strategizing on how to infiltrate the global drug trafficking network and leveraging intelligence from B.C. federal policing investigators.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Immigration arrest outside Oregon preschool rattles parents
Immigration arrest outside Oregon preschool rattles parents

CTV News

time7 minutes ago

  • CTV News

Immigration arrest outside Oregon preschool rattles parents

BEAVERTON, Ore. — Parents at a preschool in a Portland suburb are reeling after immigration officers arrested a father in front of the school during morning drop-off hours, breaking his car window to detain him in front of children, families and staffers. 'I feel like a day care, which is where young children are taken care of, should be a safe place,' Natalie Berning said after dropping off her daughter at the Montessori in Beaverton on Friday morning. 'Not only is it traumatizing for the family, it's traumatizing for all the other children as well.' Mahdi Khanbabazadeh, a 38-year-old chiropractor and citizen of Iran, was initially pulled over by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, while driving his child to the school Tuesday. After asking if he could drop off the child first, he continued driving and called his wife to tell her what happened, according to his wife, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to privacy concerns for her and her young child. His wife rushed to the school, took their child from his car and brought him inside. Khanbabazadeh stayed in the vehicle in the parking lot and asked if he could move somewhere not on school grounds out of consideration for the children and families, his wife said. He pulled out of the lot and onto the street and began to open the car door to step out when agents broke the window and took him into custody, according to his wife. Kellie Burns, who has two children attending the preschool, said her husband was there and heard the glass shatter. 'More than anything we want to express how unnecessarily violent and inhumane this was,' she said. 'Everyone felt helpless. Everyone was scared.' ICE said it detained Khanbabazadeh because he overstayed his visa, which his wife disputes. 'Officers attempted to arrest Khanbabazadeh during a traffic stop when he requested permission to drop his child off at daycare,' ICE said in a statement. 'Officers allowed him to proceed to the daycare parking lot where he stopped cooperating, resisted arrest and refused to exit his vehicle, resulting in ICE officers making entry by breaking one of the windows to complete the arrest.' Immigration officials have dramatically ramped up arrests across the country since May. Shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January, his administration lifted restrictions on making immigration arrests at schools, health care facilities and places of worship, stirring fears about going to places once considered safe spaces. After U.S. military strikes on Iran in June, officials trumpeted immigration arrests of Iranians, some of whom settled in the United States long ago. Khanbabazadeh's wife said he has always maintained lawful status. After he arrived on a valid student visa and they subsequently married, she said, they submitted all required paperwork to adjust his status and were waiting for a final decision following their green card interview months ago. Khanbabazadeh is being held at the ICE detention facility in Tacoma, Washington, she said. Guidepost Global Education, which oversees the Montessori school, called the incident 'deeply upsetting.' 'We understand that this incident raises broader questions about how law enforcement actions intersect with school environments,' CEO Maris Mendes said in a statement. 'It is not lost on us how frightening and confusing this experience may have been for those involved — especially for the young children who may have witnessed it while arriving at school with their parents.' Parents said they want to support the family and teachers. 'We know it's happening across the country, of course, but no one is prepared for their preschool ... to deal with it,' Burns said. 'It's really been a nightmare.' Claire Rush, The Associated Press

KINSELLA: Epstein files latest conspiracy theory that will fizzle out
KINSELLA: Epstein files latest conspiracy theory that will fizzle out

Toronto Sun

time2 hours ago

  • Toronto Sun

KINSELLA: Epstein files latest conspiracy theory that will fizzle out

People walk by as a message calling on U.S. President Donald Trump to release all files related to Jeffrey Epstein is projected onto the U.S. Chamber of Commerce building across from the White House in Washington, D.C., Friday, July 18, 2025. Photo by ALEX WROBLEWSKI / AFP / Getty Images More than a decade ago, in 2014, a couple of University of Chicago guys published a study about conspiracy theories. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Their much-cited investigation focused mainly on Americans, but its results are applicable to Canadians, Europeans and others, too. For a long time, the authors wrote, people 'have demonstrated high levels of suspicion towards centralized authority and their political elites.' Americans have long led the way on this sort of thing, of course. Post-Watergate, the 'paranoid style,' as the authors termed it, infected their politics, media and even Hollywood movies. Back in 2014, 50% of Americans believed in at least one conspiracy theory. It's a lot more now. Per usual, Canadians were a bit late to the party, but we started to enthusiastically champion conspiracy theories, too. Canadians embraced what the Chicago professors called 'a general distrust of government and fear of larger, secretive conspiracies.' Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. So, in 2023, Leger reported that 79% of Canadians believed in at least one conspiracy theory. The big ones, for us: JFK's assassination was a cover-up; a cure for cancer has been found but is being suppressed by government and Big Pharma; Princess Diana was assassinated and not simply killed by a drunk guy driving too fast; and — my fave — mainstream media fabricate what they report. Having worked for the mainstream media off and on for several decades, that last one always slays me. Those of us who work in the media (and politics, for that matter) can assure you: we couldn't put together a decent conspiracy if our lives depended on it. It's a miracle, frankly, that we remember to walk out of the house wearing shoes. In recent years, there's been COVID-19, HIV/AIDS, Ebola, 5G, GMOs, climate change and a bunch of others. But the hottest conspiracy theory in Canada, at the moment — and I've written a book about it – is that all Jews are immensely wealthy and powerful, and that they are covering up a murderous genocide against guiltless, child-like, angelic Palestinian saints. (Leger again: half of Canadians truly believe Israel is genocidal.) This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Adherents of this particular conspiracy theory — like all conspiracy theorists — are disinterested in the facts, one of which is: if Jews were as all-powerful as the haters claim, wouldn't they be able to stop bad people from shooting up their schools, firebombing their synagogues, and trying to kill them? If they were so controlling, couldn't they have gotten Hamas and Hezbollah to stop, you know, killing them? All of which brings us to the conspiracy theory of the moment — the Jeffrey Epstein files. The MAGA movement is incensed, we are told, and President Donald Trump could lose the presidency to the perception that he is covering up information about the deceased millionaire pedophile. No fan of Donald Trump, am I, but I don't quite get what the fuss is all about. Trump and Epstein were pals, and the internet is chock-a-block with photos of the pair, leering at females who were, in fact, girls. It's not exactly front-page news: Trump and Epstein hung out together, and they were creeps. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Hell, a civil jury found in 2023 that Trump had, indeed, sexually abused a woman many years before; another jury, in a criminal case, ruled last May that Trump had paid hush money to cover up an affair with a porn star — while his wife was pregnant, no less. Like I say: Trump's a perv? Not a revelation. So why, then, are prominent conservatives — like the spurned Elon Musk, MAGA-matron Marjorie Taylor Greene, and some of Trump's own appointees at the FBI — so worked up about Epstein and Trump? Because it's not about sexual wrongdoing, that's why. The Epstein conspiracy theory isn't about sex. It's about an invisible cadre of powerful elites, scheming to prevent the truth from coming out. It's about a secretive elitist Illuminati, somewhere out in the ether, conniving to keep the Epstein client list — which, I solemnly guarantee you, doesn't exist — from being disclosed. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The irony, of course, is that Donald Trump did this to himself. He didn't just fib — he polarized. On Epstein (and so many things), he said: they aren't just lying to you, they're evil. As with Jan. 6, vaccines, and mail-in ballots, Trump has lit a fire that now threatens to consume him. Read More It won't, however. Why? Because there's one thing Trump is better at than peddling conspiracy theories. And that's changing the channel. Trump will have all of us talking about a new conspiracy theory by this time next week. Guaranteed. * * * * * Like many, I wanted to express my condolences to the family of Mark Bonokoski, who passed away this past week. He was a great writer because he believed in what all the great writers believe in: facts. Toronto & GTA MMA Tennis Letters Celebrity

Family of Montreal woman detained by ICE says it's a 'nightmare'
Family of Montreal woman detained by ICE says it's a 'nightmare'

National Post

time3 hours ago

  • National Post

Family of Montreal woman detained by ICE says it's a 'nightmare'

Paula Callejas was trying to expand her swimsuit business in Florida after taking time off to take care of her ailing father in Canada before his death. Instead of celebrating the fashion line, the Canadian was taken into United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention. Article content The 45-year-old's family said their finances are being stretched as they try to navigate the confusing and difficult legal and immigration systems in the United States. Article content Article content 'She was very strong, very strong,' said her mother Maria Estella Cano. 'Now every, every day she (cries), every day and (says) she can't take it anymore.' Article content Article content U.S. President Donald Trump has ramped up deportation efforts since his return to the White House in January after successfully campaigning on a promise to take drastic actions on illegal immigration. Article content The immigration crackdown includes controversial actions like targeting students for protesting, as well as sending people to a notorious prison in El Salvador. There has been an increase in raids by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, called ICE, at restaurants and farms amid dramatic standoffs with protesters. Article content While Trump's team have said they are targeting criminals first, they also said anyone in the country illegally will be deported. Article content Callejas was born and raised in Montreal after her family immigrated from Colombia. She started her swimsuit line in Canada around 2012 and was gaining momentum but when her father became unwell she paused her dreams to help care for him. Article content Article content Article content Following her father's 2020 death, Callejas restarted her efforts to build a swimsuit company. Family said she did a few runway shows in Florida over the years and saw that there was real opportunity for her fashion line to develop in the state. She even was invited to take part in Miami Swim Week last year. Article content Article content She bought property in Florida, her mother said, and lived a modest life while working to build the brand. Article content Family said they believed she was in the United States on a non-immigrant visa for people with special skills that was set to expire in March. They said she applied for an extension in February, but it was denied for a technical reason around the colour of ink used to sign the document. Article content Family said Callejas reapplied, thinking the issue was solved. Article content On March 28, Callejas was arrested for battery after family said there was an altercation with her then-boyfriend. Family say Callejas maintains her innocence in the situation and said she was defending herself.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store