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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.
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