The Canadian government does talk about adding helicopters and drones to the border to stop the shipment of fentanyl so that Donald Trump drops his threat of devastating economic tariffs.


But David Asher, a Trump ally, says more needs to be done. Much more. And as someone who worked on fentanyl policy for Trump, he says Canada should make substantive, systemic changes.


He calls it frustrating to hear Canadians downplay their country’s role in the fentanyl epidemic just because: minuscule percentage of the seized contraband comes from Canada. There’s more to it than that, he says.


Asher is pushing for new laws on racketeering, money laundering and intelligence sharing to combat international criminal networks that he says use Canada as a back office.


A top American expert in the field of criminal financingAsher led one anti-fentanyl task force under Trump, occasionally testified before the US Congress, and has written a strategy for fentanyl memo now reportedly circulates under Trump’s transition team.


Coincidentally, he was talking to Canadians in Vancouver safety stop right as the President-elect threatened the tariffs, just after 3:00 PM PT on Monday, November 25.


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Trump repeats tariff threats and talks about Trudeau visit in NBC interview








In his first television interview since winning the US election, newly elected President Donald Trump has stepped up threats to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico. He also pledged to end automatic birthright citizenship, implement mass deportations and pardon all those imprisoned during the January 6, 2021, attack on Washington.


He told his Canadian audience about the need not only to seize pills, but also to wipe out criminals’ bank accounts and prosecute corrupt bankers.


Asher then checked his phone while someone else spoke and saw the message on social media That has turned politics upside down across the continent: a looming 25 percent tariff on all goods from Canada and Mexico unless the countries curb fentanyl trafficking and migration at the U.S. border.


The public seemed shocked and somewhat dismayed by the news, he said.


“They kept asking, ‘Why should Canada care about this fentanyl issue?’” said Asher, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning Hudson Institute in Washington, DC.


For starters, he said, Canada should be concerned because fentanyl is killing many thousands of people Canadians and hundreds of thousands Americans.


But what’s more, Canada is a more important player in the fentanyl trade than the country acknowledges, he said — and its role is expanding.




Trump draws a Canadian flag standing over snowy mountains
Trump has made jokes, including posting this AI-produced image on social media. He has made threats regarding tariffs. What he hasn’t done is name specific policies, so it’s unclear whether he expects major or minor changes from Canada on fentanyl. (Truth Social)


‘We have been informing the Canadian government about this for years’


“The money laundering that makes the drug trade work takes place largely in Canada,” he said, specifically mentioning Vancouver and Toronto.


‘Canada has been a reluctant and not particularly effective partner in this.


‘We have been informing the Canadian government about this for years. We’ve had very little collaboration, to be honest. And it’s time, I think, with Donald Trump’s threat of a tariff, for your Prime Minister and others to take action. “


Canadian officials who met with Trump’s team at Mar-a-Lago, certainly came out with the impression that the president-elect does indeed care about fentanyl.


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An insider’s account of Trudeau’s Florida dinner with Trump








Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc provides insider insight into the Mar-a-Lago dinner between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and newly elected US President Donald Trump, as Canada tries to counter the proposed 25 per cent tariff threat.


What Canadians didn’t know – and still don’t know – is what Trump actually wants; he never gets specific about whether he’s looking for greater security at the actual border, or the systemic changes Asher favors.


Asher makes it clear that he cannot answer for Trump and does not speak for him. He said he knew there would be some kind of boundary declaration from the newly elected president, as he has close ties to numerous members of the new administration.


But he was not aware that the statement would contain a tariff threat, nor was he aware that the timing would coincide with his Canadian event.


“There was a great hush in the room,” said David Luna, who was at the Vancouver conference, referring to the moment Asher announced the tariff threat. He earlier led efforts against narcotics, money laundering, and organized crime at the U.S. Department of State.


“(The response was), ‘This is real.'”


Paper: Canada a money laundering center


Luna co-wrote one report He calls Canada a hub for some of the world’s largest criminal networks, from Mexico, China, Iran and Russia, which he says use the country as a safe haven for money laundering, as well as a source of encrypted telephone technology.


Criminal gangs’ use of Canadian-based encrypted communications came into the spotlight when the CEO of an encrypted phone company in Washington state was arrested, resulting in the prosecution and conviction from the head of the RCMP Intelligence Coordination Centre.


Senior Mountie Cameron Ortis was found guilty of hoarding and leaking state secrets. Asher refers to this matter bitterly; he notes that his colleagues – and all Five Eyes countries – had regularly shared intelligence with Ortis.




Cameron Jay Ortis, a former RCMP intelligence officer charged with violating the Canadian Secrets Act, arrives for his trial at the courthouse in Ottawa on Thursday, November 16, 2023.
Cameron Jay Ortis, a former RCMP intelligence officer charged with violating the Canadian Secrets Act, arrives for his trial at the courthouse in Ottawa on Thursday, November 16, 2023. (Justin Tang/Canadian Press)


One of the largest drug traffickers in the world is also one Canadian citizen: Tse Chi Lop, who was arrested during a European stopover in a multinational police operation in 2021.


Then there is the TD Bank case. The bank faces $3 billion in fines after workers in the US were willing accomplices of Chinese and Mexican gangs who used it to launder drug money – including fentanyl money.


Asher listed a number of friends assigned to top positions at Trump’s Justice Department and said he hopes they will bring criminal charges against executives at that bank and other institutions.


LOOK | TD Bank’s fine was the largest under the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act:









TD Bank pleads guilty and fines $3 billion in landmark US money laundering case








Canada’s Toronto-Dominion Bank has agreed to pay fines totaling about $3.09 billion after pleading guilty to multiple money laundering charges in the US. U.S. officials say drug traffickers bribed TD employees to launder up to $670 million from fentanyl sales.


Some senior managers at the bank were aware of the scheme, and current U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has said more charges could follow in addition to the two employees already charged.


A former Canadian officer said it is nevertheless depressingly difficult to prosecute such cases in Canada well-documented evidence of money laundering.


“That’s what the Americans are looking at,” said Calvin Chrustie, a former RCMP superintendent in Vancouver who has investigated transnational crime networks.


“They don’t look at the man who crosses the border with a backpack.”


Because to be honest, if they simply counted contraband shipments, Canada would indeed be a negligible player.


Canada accounts for just 0.2 percent of fentanyl seized by the US at its land borders in the last fiscal year: only 19.5 kilograms at the northern border, versus 9,571 kilograms on the south side.


Canadian officials have made this point repeatedly. Sources say Trudeau pointed this out to Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and Canadian officials noted this in media interviews.


Several experts who spoke about fentanyl at a conference in Washington last week said they are absolutely right.


But there’s an asterisk: “However, Canada has serious problems with organized crime,” Vanda Felbab-Brown told CBC News. She organized one event on the North American fentanyl crisis at the Brookings Institution on Wednesday.




An aerial view of several damaged greenhouses and a rectangular shed-like shed.
An aerial view of the site in Falkland, B.C., where police say the largest and most sophisticated illegal drug production operation ever conducted in Canada took place. (RCMP)


What new laws?


Even there, Asher says, Canadians may be downplaying the country’s growing role in the actual production and export of fentanyl.


A briefing note from Health Canada, obtained by CBC NewsThe criminal groups mentioned now have a surplus of supply and may start selling this abroad.


This is before the massive collapse of a so-called superlab in BC this fall. Authorities said they found enough fentanyl and ingredients there to overproduce 95 million doses. That, Asher noted, is the equivalent of nearly three times the population of Canada, and signals growing export activity.


LOOK | Superlab drugs and materials worth almost half a billion dollars:









RCMP bust drug ‘superlab’, seize $485 million worth of fentanyl and meth








BC RCMP say officers have taken down Canada’s “largest, most sophisticated drug superlab.” Police have seized drugs and drug paraphernalia worth almost half a billion dollars.


So what does he hope to see in Canada?


A racketeering law slightly closer to that of the US RICO statute. Sanctions for banks involved in money laundering are similar Section 311 of the American Patriot Act, which Asher said he was involved in drafting. Better Use of Intelligence in Canadian Criminal Cases – an old, complicated issue.


And he calls for the student to be withdrawn Visaalso in the US, for every international student who deposits dirty money in a bank, something happens that he says is happening.


“I’m not one to blame Canada. Canada is a great country. I’m a big fan of Canadian law enforcement. The RCMP has been a great partner,” he said.


“(But) we have continually encountered obstacles as we work together. They know so much. And they admit there is so little they can do, given the legal limitations.”


It can be fixed, he says. He is confident that if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were to pass more aggressive border legislation, it would improve the country’s relations with Trump.


“I don’t think President Trump harbors any ill will toward Canada. I think he just thinks the deal is unfair.”



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