That suggests exports might be increasing, but the U.S. seizes far more fentanyl on the Mexico border than the Canadian border
While the amount of fentanyl smuggled into the United States from Canada has so far been small, the increased number of B.C. super labs indicates organized crime groups here are expanding synthetic drug exports, the RCMP says.
Cpl. Arash Seyed, of the RCMP’s federal serious and organized crime section, said Monday that police don’t know where most of record amount of fentanyl seized in October from Falkland’s super lab was destined.
Of the 95 million potential fentanyl doses found in the lab, “we don’t know where that was going to be going,” Seyed said.
One specific shipment from the Falkland lab — the biggest ever uncovered in Canada — was intercepted before it could be sent to another country overseas, Seyed said. It was not destined for the U.S.
American President Donald Trump cited fentanyl smuggling as one reason he was imposing 25 per cent tariffs across the board on Canadian goods. He has delayed the tariffs for 30 days after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered a new $1.3 billion border plan “with new choppers, technology and personnel, enhanced coordination with our American partners, and increased resources to stop the flow of fentanyl.”
Trudeau also said he would appoint a “fentanyl czar” and “will list cartels as terrorists” as well as launch a Canada-U.S. joint strike force to combat organized crime.
Trump specifically cited B.C.’s super labs in his original executive order, referencing a report that “recognized Canada’s heightened domestic production of fentanyl, largely from British Columbia, and its growing footprint within international narcotics distribution.”
But the U.S. border patrol seized less than 20 kilograms of fentanyl from Canada in the 2024 fiscal year, while intercepting almost 10 tonnes headed north from Mexico.
“We have the world’s most sophisticated drug super labs,” Seyed said. “They’re expanding. They’re increasing in size and sophistication. And that’s something that obviously concerning for our neighbours.”
Canadian criminal organizations are also manufacturing methamphetamine and MDMA, also known as ecstasy, in the same super labs that are producing fentanyl, which leads to cross-contamination, he said.
Some of that MDMA and meth is being smuggled into the U.S.
“Meth and fentanyl go hand in hand,” Seyed said. “Our organized crime groups use MDMA as currency with cartel groups, with lots of organized crime groups in the States.”
He said because fentanyl is so cheap down south, it is not the most lucrative market for Canadian criminal organizations that want to maximize their earnings.
“It just doesn’t make sense for organized crime to make it here,” he said of fentanyl for the U.S. market.
Seyed said that Europe is an “emerging market” for fentanyl.
“We’ve had delegations from different countries, mostly EU nations, coming here regularly, because it’s starting to manifest over there,” he said.
Police can’t say yet if Canadian fentanyl is being shipped to Europe, but there has been evidence of Mexican cartels operating there. Some of the B.C. super lab fentanyl “has been going to Southeast Asia,” Seyed said.
Australia and New Zealand — the main and most lucrative markets for Canadian-produced methamphetamine — have been fighting to keep fentanyl out.
Earlier Monday, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre urged action to tighten up the Canadian border, including hiring 2,000 new border agents. He also said high-powered scanners should be installed at all major land crossings and shipping ports.
“The border must be fixed for the good of Canadians. The result of the Liberals’ border chaos and soft-on-crime policies has been gun smuggling driving violent crime, an immigration system that is completely out of control, and fentanyl and human trafficking destroying lives,” Poilievre said.