Well-known alleged Vancouver gang leader arrested in the U.S. for wide-scale drug bust
According to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court, Surrey gangster Opinder Singh Sian was at the centre of a vast conspiracy to import precursor chemicals from China and export narcotics through the port of Los Angeles to Australia.
Sian was well known in Vancouver organized crime circles.
He was linked to the Brothers Keepers and survived a shooting in 2008, as well as another in 2011.
In 2022, he became involved in a plot originating in Ankara, Turkey.
According to court documents, a special agent with the DEA's High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Group 48 (HIDTA 48), which investigates large-scale drug trafficking organizations, was brought in to investigate the drug trafficking.
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Around June 2022, the group received a lead from its Turkey office about an opportunity to insert a confidential source to play the role of an international transportation coordinator in a drug trafficking organization to transport drugs from Southern California to Australia and other destinations.
This person then had a phone conversation with a member of the drug trafficking organization in Turkey and then with Sian.
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They arranged four drop-offs of methamphetamine to the confidential source in Southern California for shipment to Australia, including approximately 30 pounds of meth on June 22, 2023, 200 pounds of meth on July 6, 2023, 100 pounds of meth on Aug. 21, 2023 and 200 pounds of meth on Aug. 28, 2023.
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After the pickups, the confidential source led Sian and others to believe that they had their drugs safely stored until they could be shipped from Los Angeles to Australia.
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However, when the drugs arrived in Australia, officials packaged fake drugs and placed a tracking device inside.
The fake drugs were then driven to a stash house and officers with the DEA in Australia then raided the stash house and arrested the receiving couriers.
'After their initial contact, Sian and CS-1 continued communicating and arranged an in-person meeting in Vancouver, Canada, on February 1, 2023,' the court documents read.
'Sian explained that in Canada, he works with Irish organized crime, specifically, the Kinnehan 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.'
According to the affidavit, Sian thought he was moving hundreds of kilos of meth, but the DEA intercepted all of it, sending fake products to Sydney, where Australian law enforcement would track it to its destination and make arrests.
Court documents also allege Sian was involved in the purchase of precursor chemicals from China and the distribution of those chemicals to Mexican Cartels.
According to the affidavit, a Chinese national named Peng Zhou alleged he could get the precursor chemicals directly from China and could send them to LA through his trucking company.
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Experts said this is a common route and method.
'Vancouver is the centre of gravity for hybrid warfare for transnational organized crime in North America,' Scott McGregor, a former military intelligence operator, told Global News.
'One of my colleagues in D.C. mentioned that it was a cross between Dubai and Miami.'
Sian was arrested in Arizona and the affidavit was filed in California. None of the other people named in the document are facing charges at this time.
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