Latest news with #SinaloaCartel
CBS News
3 hours ago
- CBS News
U.S. drug raids net $10 million in crypto linked to notorious Mexican Sinaloa cartel, officials say
U.S. drug enforcement agents seized more than $10 million in cryptocurrency linked to Mexico's Sinaloa cartel during raids that also netted massive quantities of fentanyl and other drugs, officials said Tuesday. The Sinaloa cartel is one of six Mexican drug trafficking groups that President Trump has designated as global "terrorist" organizations. The cryptocurrency seizure in Miami was part of nationwide operations that netted 44 million fentanyl pills, 4,500 pounds of fentanyl powder and nearly 65,000 pounds of methamphetamine since January, the Justice Department said in a statement. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), in coordination with its FBI partners "seized over $10 million dollars in cryptocurrency, directly linked to the Sinaloa cartel," it added. It comes days after Ovidio Guzman Lopez, a son of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, pleaded guilty to drug charges in Chicago in a deal struck with prosecutors in return for a reduced sentence. His father was convicted in a high-profile trial in 2019 and is serving a life sentence in prison. "DEA is hitting the cartels where it hurts -- with arrests, with seizures, and with relentless pressure," DEA Acting Administrator Robert Murphy said. The cryptocurrency haul was among several major seizures across the country in recent weeks, including in California, Texas, Georgia and other states that netted thousands of pounds of drugs and dozens of arrests. In Galveston, Texas, agents uncovered more than 1,700 pounds of methamphetamine worth more than $15 million hidden inside a vehicle. Other raids yielded drugs hidden in produce shipments, including 705 pounds of methamphetamine concealed in cucumbers in Georgia and 783 pounds found in a refrigerated truck carrying blueberries in Texas. The Sinaloa cartel is known for its ruthlessness, as two recent instances show. Late last month, the Justice Department revealed that it hired hacker who was able to infiltrate phone data and Mexico City's surveillance cameras to help track and kill FBI informants. Also late last month, Mexican authorities said twenty bodies, several of them decapitated, were found on a highway bridge in a part of Mexico where factions of the Sinaloa drug cartel are fighting each other.
Ottawa Citizen
14 hours ago
- Ottawa Citizen
Surrey gangster rises to alleged international drug kingpin
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.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
Special Forces raid on 'narco tanker' could expose the gangsters behind global drug smuggling cartel
An undercover operation by American agents that successfully infiltrated a global drugs trafficking ring run by the Kinahan cartel has been revealed for the first time -days after eight gangsters who were caught in a Special Forces raid on a 'narco-tanker' in the Irish Sea were jailed. In a dramatic operation akin to something from a movie, operatives from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) penetrated the gang's vast international network. The high-stakes mission, revealed for the first time in newly unsealed federal court records, exposed how the bloodthirsty group was expanding its empire globally in a bid to rival the likes of Mexico 's fearsome Sinaloa Cartel. Gangsters from the Irish narcotic empire are accused of trafficking methamphetamine and fentanyl precursor chemicals worldwide. The discovery by the DEA will undoubtedly worry drugs barons within the group, with the authority's investigation now exposing the cartel's move towards smuggling synthetic drugs - a shift from its traditional cocaine trafficking operation. News of the dramatic operation by American agents comes after eight men from the Kinahan cartel were jailed earlier this month for their part in trying to smuggle 2.2 tonnes of cocaine, worth $178million) into the country. The vast haul was found after special forces soldiers from the Irish Army Range Wing fast-roped from a helicopter onto the Panamanian cargo ship, MV Matthew, in September 2023. The bust was hailed the biggest-ever cocaine seizure in Irish waters and exposed how the Kinahans were linked to the Iran-backed terror group, Hezbollah. Details of the American mission combined with the Irish special forces raid, are raising fresh questions about just how powerful the Kinahan cartel is in the global drugs trade - and how far their reach now extends across the globe. Founded in the late 1990s in Dublin, the narcotics ring is led by 'Dapper Don' Christy Kinahan, a former street-dealer-turned-international cocaine trafficker. The cartel is notorious for its brutal tactics, having been accused of a number of gangland hits against rivals. Now based in Dubai, Kinahan and his sons Daniel and Christopher Jr are the subjects of international sanctions, with a $5million bounty from the U.S. authorities hanging over their heads. Now, new details have emerged revealing how DEA agents had infiltrated the Kinahans more than a year before the mega drugs bust in September 2023. The operation began in the Turkish city of Ankara, in June 2022, when the authority's office there recruited a confidential informant, codenamed 'Queen', to penetrate the gang's trafficking operation, reports The Times. The insider gained the trust of Opinder Singh Sian, a Canadian national accused of holding a top position in the network, who was arrested in Nevada last month. It's alleged Sian told undercover agents he was linked to the Kinahan cartel, the Italian mafia and a major Turkish trafficker wanted since 2019. The Kinahans are known to have strong links to Turkey, with the gang having substantial investments in the country. Under the guidance of DEA handlers, Queen introduced Sian to an undercover agent posing as a relative, who claimed to have the ability to shift vast quantities of drugs via the Port of Long Beach, one of America's busiest container ports. According to U.S. documents, the three met in March 2023 at a restaurant in Manhattan Beach, California, to set up a new trafficking deal smuggling methamphetamine to Australia, where prices can exceed $200,000 per kilo. Over the summer of 2023, Sian worked with a team of undercover agents to set up a staged shipment of meth via a safehouse in Pomona, east of Los Angeles. DEA agents then staged a fake handover, seizing the real drugs for analysis before replacing them with decoy packages. Meanwhile, when the ship arrived in Australia, police there used a GPS-tracked container to trace the trail to a suspected drugs den in Sydney. Court documents also show how Sian had used encrypted apps such as Threema to communicate with Queen and other suspected traffickers. And further investigation uncovered plans by the Kinahans to allegedly smuggle fentanyl precursor chemicals from China into the United States via Canada, with Queen reportedly meeting two Canadian collaborators of Sian who were aiding the narcotics expansion. The extensive undercover operation provides fresh insight into how the Kinahans have linked up with other key figures in the criminal underworld to try and gain a foothold in the international drugs trade, shifting drugs through global ports. It's unclear whether this undercover operation provided intelligence which ultimately led to the huge bust on the drugs container ship in September 2023. Voice messages from an individual in Dubai, identified as 'Captain Noah', show the crew on the MV Matthew were instructed to load all cocaine into a lifeboat for a rendezvous with a different vessel - which would not occur due to the interception by Irish authorities. The MV Matthew repeatedly ignored instructions from Revenue and the Naval Service's LE WB Yeats. Text messages and voice notes show panicked communications within the criminal network, including the incorrect belief that the ship would not be boarded if it headed further into international waters. While trying to evade the naval service, the LE WB Yeats entered a 'hot pursuit' and - acting as a warship - fired warning shots in the vicinity of the MV Matthew. The captain of the MV Matthew communicated that it was a commercial vessel and was not in jurisdiction covered by the Irish navy: 'Irish warship, please do not fire at us.' He added: 'Can you advise if you are in hot pursuit of us?' Criminals onboard started deleting messages and attempted to burn the cocaine onboard as Captain Noah told them they would not be boarded. He sent a voice message: 'My stress level is near to heart attack, try to be calm.' However, the Army Ranger Wing would shortly board the vessel by descending on ropes from a helicopter while the ship was moving erratically - ending the chase, leading to the successful arrests and seizure of the cocaine. Six of the eight men who have now been sentenced were on board the MV Matthew at the time, while the other two were on the trawler. The eight men who have now been sentenced are: After they were sentenced, Assistant Commissioner for Organised and Serious Crime Angela Willis said the investigation showed the Irish State's commitment to tackle organised crime. 'Transnational organised crime groups know no borders, they prey on people's vulnerability for their own financial gain. 'People are dispensable and expendable when they are no longer of use to the criminal organisation 'Life is cheap and protecting their core criminal interest - which is money - is their key priority.' Criminals onboard started deleting messages and attempted to burn the cocaine onboard as Captain Noah told them they would not be boarded. He sent a voice message: 'My stress level is near to heart attack, try to be calm.' However, the Army Ranger Wing would shortly board the vessel by descending on ropes from a helicopter while the ship was moving erratically - ending the chase, leading to the successful arrests and seizure of the cocaine. The eight men who have now been sentenced are: After they were sentenced, Assistant Commissioner for Organised & Serious Crime Angela Willis said the investigation showed the Irish State's commitment to tackle organised crime. 'Transnational organised crime groups know no borders, they prey on people's vulnerability for their own financial gain. 'People are dispensable and expendable when they are no longer of use to the criminal organisation 'Life is cheap and protecting their core criminal interest - which is money - is their key priority.'
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Surrey gangster led transnational drug operation with infamous Irish gang
A Surrey gangster linked to the Brothers Keepers allegedly worked with the notorious Irish Kinahan gang as well as Turkish and American criminals to smuggle methamphetamine and fentanyl precursors around the globe. Opinder Singh Sian, who survived two Surrey shootings in 2008 and 2011, was arrested last month in Nevada, according to U.S. court documents obtained by Postmedia. He was charged in California with smuggling large shipments of methamphetamine out of the port of Long Beach to Australia in the summer of 2023. At one point during the three-year-long investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Sian allegedly told a confidential source that he worked with 'Irish organized crime, specifically, the Kinahan family, Italian organized crime, and other Canadian organized crime groups.' 'Sian also explained that he obtained drugs through contacts with drug cartels in Mexico and South America. Sian again stated that he worked with a known drug kingpin based out of Turkey,' the 29-page criminal complaint said. The Kinahan gang started in Dublin in the 1990s, but is now headquartered in Dubai. It has close ties to Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel. The U.S. State Department announced $5-million US rewards for the arrest of leader Christy Kinahan and his sons Daniel and Christopher Jr. in April 2022. All three are also subject to U.S. Treasury sanctions. The investigation that led to Sian's arrest began in June 2022 when the DEA's office in Ankara, Turkey saw an opportunity to 'insert a confidential source (CS-1) playing the role of an international transportation coordinator into an international drug trafficking organization that needed help transporting drugs from Southern California to Australia and other destinations.' A gang member in Turkey gave the source Sian's phone number, identifying him as the North American leader of the drug trafficking organizations, the court document filed against Sian said. 'Sian and CS-1 subsequently held several in-person meetings and communicated via phone calls and the Threema messaging application in order to coordinate multiple deliveries of methamphetamine from co-conspirators to CS-1 in Southern California for shipment to Australia,' said the complaint, signed by DEA special agent Albert Polito. Sian unwittingly met the confidential source in both Vancouver and California in early 2023, arranging four drop-offs of methamphetamine totalling more than 240 kilograms throughout the summer of 2023. The complaint said Sian believed that CS-1 was arranging to ship the meth to Australia through his purported cousin who posed as a port worker, but was really an undercover DEA agent. During a February 2023 Vancouver meeting, Sian introduced CS-1 to two male associates. 'They explained that they had about 500 kilograms of cocaine and needed help getting it through Los Angeles ports and then on to Australia. CS-1 claimed that he/she could arrange for the drugs to be offloaded in Los Angeles, repackaged, and put on a container ship to Australia,' the document said. 'CS-1 also claimed that he/she could arrange for someone to offload the drugs in Australia and transfer them to the ultimate buyers.' The following month, Sian went to L.A. to meet the source at a Manhattan Beach restaurant. The undercover DEA agent also attended. 'At the beginning of the meeting, Sian said they could get in trouble just for meeting like this.' CS-1 convinced Sian that the meth was being consolidated into a single load being sent in August 2023. 'When the purported arrival date came, DEA and Australian law enforcement packaged sham methamphetamine and placed a tracking device inside,' the document said. Undercover Australian officers gave the sham drugs to gang members in Sydney who drove to a stash house. 'The Australians then raided the stash house and soon thereafter arrested the receiving couriers.' At the urging of the DEA handlers, CS-1 asked Sian if he could get fentanyl precursor chemicals into the U.S. 'Sian informed CS-1 that he could get the chemicals directly from China. He then asked CS-1 if they could receive a shipping container in the Port of Long Beach containing those chemicals,' the complaint said, adding that Sian sent sample chemicals through the mail to the source. CS-1 visited Vancouver again in August 2023 for a meeting with Sian and an associate named Peter Peng Zhou. Zhou said 'he would be getting the precursors from China in Vancouver and send them to Los Angeles, via his trucking company.' So far, other B.C. suspects named in the U.S. case have not been charged. A Nevada judge ordered Sian, 37, held in custody pending his transfer to California. She said in her June 30 decision that Sian's criminal gang 'is alleged to have ties to international hitmen.' Sian has been on police radar in B.C. since at least 2008. He was wounded in a shooting in August 2008 that left his friend Gurpreet Sidhu dead. He was targeted again in May 2011, but survived. He was convicted in July 2017 of careless use of a firearm and sentenced to 18 months probation. kbolan@ . Bluesky: @ Hundreds of Hells Angels, affiliates attend memorial for original B.C. member BMW seized from Montreal gangster in Kamloops linked to sex trafficking
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Daily Mail
Special Forces raid on 'narco tanker' that could expose the Irish gangsters behind the largest drug smuggling cartel in the world
Undercover American agents successfully infiltrated the notorious Kinahan cartel, before Irish special forces stormed one of the gang's £132million 'narco' ships, it can this week be revealed. In a dramatic operation akin to something from a movie, operatives from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) penetrated the gang's vast international network. The high-stakes mission, revealed for the first time in newly unsealed federal court records, exposed how hoods from the bloodthirsty group were expanding their empire globally in a bid to rival the likes of Mexico 's fearsome Sinaloa Cartel. Gangsters from the Irish narcotic empire - which has links to mainland Britain - are accused of trafficking methamphetamine and fentanyl precursor chemicals worldwide. The discovery by the DEA will undoubtedly worry drugs barons within the group, with the authority's investigation now exposing the cartel's move towards smuggling synthetic drugs - a shift from its traditional cocaine trafficking operation. News of the dramatic operation by American agents comes after eight men from the Kinahan cartel were jailed earlier this month for their part in trying to smuggle 2.2 tonnes of cocaine, worth £132million, into the country. The vast haul was found after special forces soldiers from the Irish Army Range Wing fast-roped from a helicopter onto the Panamanian cargo ship, MV Matthew, in September 2023. The bust was hailed the biggest-ever cocaine seizure in Irish waters and exposed how the Kinahans were linked to the Iran-backed terror group, Hezbollah. Founded in the late 1990s in Dublin, the narcotics ring is led by 'Dapper Don' Christy Kinahan, a former street dealer-turned-international cocaine trafficker. The cartel is notorious for its brutal tactics, having been accused of a number of gangland hits against rivals. Now based in Dubai, Kinahan and his sons Daniel and Christopher Jr are the subjects of international sanctions, with a $5million bounty from the US authorities hanging over their heads. Now, new details have emerged revealing how DEA agents had infiltrated the Kinahans more than a year before the mega drugs bust in September 2023. The operation began in the Turkish city of Ankara, in June 2022, when the authority's office there recruited a confidential informant, codenamed 'Queen', to penetrate the gang's trafficking operation, reports The Times. The insider gained the trust of Opinder Singh Sian, a Canadian national accused of holding a top position in the network, who was arrested in Nevada last month. It's alleged Sian told undercover agents he was linked to the Kinahan cartel, the Italian mafia and a major Turkish trafficker wanted since 2019. The Kinahans are known to have strong links to Turkey, with the gang having substantial investments in the country. Kinahan's cartel also supplies drugs to Australia. Under the guidance of DEA handlers, Queen introduced Sian to an undercover agent posing as a relative, who claimed to have the ability to shift vast quantities of drugs via the Port of Long Beach, one of America's busiest container ports. According to US documents, the three met in March 2023 at a restaurant in Manhattan Beach, California, to set up a new trafficking deal smuggling methamphetamine to Australia, where prices can exceed $200,000 per kilo. Over the summer of 2023, Sian worked with a team of undercover agents to set up a staged shipment of meth via a safehouse in Pomona, east of Los Angeles. The Mv Matthew's crew did not know suspicions about its activities had been relayed to An Garda Siochana and the drugs and organised crime bureau was monitoring the ship (pictured) DEA agents then staged a fake handover, seizing the real drugs for analysis before replacing them with decoy packages. Meanwhile, when the ship arrived in Australia, police there used a GPS-tracked container to trace the trail to a suspected drugs den in Sydney. Court documents also show how Sian had used encrypted apps such as Threema to communicate with Queen and other suspected traffickers. And further investigation uncovered plans by the Kinahans to allegedly smuggle fentanyl precursor chemicals from China into the United States via Canada, with Queen reportedly meeting two Canadian collaborators of Sian who were aiding the narcotics expansion. The extensive undercover operation provides fresh insight into how the Kinahans have linked up with other key figures in the criminal underworld to try and gain a foothold in the international drugs trade, shifting drugs through global ports. It's unclear whether this undercover operation provided intelligence which ultimately led to the huge bust on the drugs container ship in September 2023. As previously reported, the gang's plans were dealt a major blow when its £132million haul of cocaine was seized by the Irish authorities. An elite strike force from the Irish Defence Force roped in from helicopters in gale-force winds while the container ship's crew desperately attempted to evade them. Dramatic footage of the raid showed how Irish troops were in 'hot pursuit' of the criminals, which included warning shots fired by the Naval Service before army rangers stormed the ship. The Panama-flagged MV Matthew entered Irish territorial waters on September 23, 2023, having set off from Curacao, an island off the coast of Venezuela. But unbeknown to the crew, suspicions about its activities had been relayed to An Garda Siochana - Ireland's national police organisation -which ordered teams from its drugs and organised crime bureau to monitor the ship. As part of the mission, the FV Castlemore fishing trawler, which had been purchased by two men with funding from an organised crime group, was also tracked. The two men on the FV Castlemore were communicating with criminal cells in Dubai and beyond about the MV Matthew 'mothership'. The trawler engaged in a number of failed attempts to receive clandestine transfers of the cocaine from the MV Matthew. During what would be its final attempt, the Irish Coast Guard engaged with the vessel to warn it of dangerous conditions and inquire about its lack of movement. The FV Castlemore later put out a distress call to the Coast Guard after running aground on a sandbank off the Wexford coast. The crew were rescued by Coast Guard helicopter and taken to the naval vessel, the LE WB Yeats - essentially inadvertently handing themselves in for arrest. When the mothership became aware of the distress call, a change of plan was ordered. Voice messages from an individual in Dubai, identified as 'Captain Noah' and who gardai believe remains in the Middle East, show the crew on the MV Matthew were instructed to load all cocaine into a lifeboat for a rendezvous with a different vessel - which would not occur due to the interception by Irish authorities. The MV Matthew repeatedly ignored instructions from Revenue and the Naval Service's LE WB Yeats. Text messages and voice notes show panicked communications within the criminal network, including the incorrect belief that the ship would not be boarded if it headed further into international waters. While trying to evade the naval service, the LE WB Yeats entered a 'hot pursuit' and - acting as a warship - fired warning shots in the vicinity of the MV Matthew. The captain of the MV Matthew communicated that it was a commercial vessel and was not in jurisdiction covered by the Irish navy: 'Irish warship, please do not fire at us.' He added: 'Can you advise if you are in hot pursuit of us?' Criminals onboard started deleting messages and attempted to burn the cocaine onboard as Captain Noah told them they would not be boarded. He sent a voice message: 'My stress level is near to heart attack, try to be calm.' However, the Army Ranger Wing would shortly board the vessel by descending on ropes from a helicopter while the ship was moving erratically - ending the chase, leading to the successful arrests and seizure of the cocaine. Six of the eight men who have now been sentenced were on board the MV Matthew at the time, while the other two were on the trawler. The eight men who have now been sentenced are: After they were sentenced, Assistant Commissioner for Organised and Serious Crime Angela Willis said the investigation showed the Irish State's commitment to tackle organised crime. 'Transnational organised crime groups know no borders, they prey on people's vulnerability for their own financial gain. 'People are dispensable and expendable when they are no longer of use to the criminal organisation
