A secret police analysis reveals that crime networks could have laundered .

A secret police analysis reveals that crime networks could have laundered over $1 billion via Vancouver residences in 2016.
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A confidential police report reveals that crime syndicates could have funnelled over $1 billion through Vancouver properties in 2016. At the end of a secure driveway in Shaughnessy—a lavish neighbourhood in Vancouver—sits a $17 million mansion associated with a suspected fentanyl importer.
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Just a block away, another grand estate, valued at $22 million, has ties to a high-stakes gambler and property developer allegedly connected to Chinese law enforcement. Both properties are part of a report detailing over $1 billion in Vancouver real estate transactions from 2016, which police intelligence links to organized crime from China. The analysis looked at more than 1,200 luxury home purchases in British Columbia's Lower Mainland that year, revealing that over 10 percent involved buyers with criminal histories. A staggering 95 percent of these transactions were believed to be associated with Chinese criminal networks. Research obtained by Global News sheds light on what law enforcement believes to be significant money laundering within the Vancouver real estate market. An expert, who requested anonymity due to ongoing investigations, remarked, "If the characters from Netflix's 'Ozark' arrived in Vancouver, they could easily launder their cash in just one day." Although the study focused solely on 2016 property transactions, Global News estimates that the same crime networks have laundered roughly $5 billion in homes across the Vancouver area since 2012. Central to this operation is the notorious Big Circle Boys, a powerful gang based in China whose upper-tier leaders are international drug traffickers profiting from the fentanyl epidemic in Canada. This fluid network reportedly includes affluent criminals in Metro Vancouver—ranging from gang members to corrupt officials—engaged in various illegal activities like drug importation, casino money laundering, prostitution, and financial crimes. A significant connection among these players is an underground banking system facilitating the transfer of funds between China and Richmond, B.C., aimed at supporting fentanyl trafficking in Canada. B.C. Lottery casinos play a key role in these covert transactions, although the volume of money laundered through gambling is minimal compared to what flows through real estate. One expert indicated that Canadians would be shocked to learn how many homes in Vancouver have been funded by drug money since the 1990s, coinciding with an influx of heroin from Hong Kong and China. The police intelligence report, finalized this year, scrutinized real estate transactions valued between $3 million and $35 million.
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While there were suspicions regarding money laundering in the $1 to $3 million range—particularly from dubious condo flipping—researchers lacked the resources to delve into over 20,000 transactions within that segment. To compile the 2016 findings, researchers cross-referenced property documents with criminal record databases and confidential police intelligence related to ongoing criminal investigations. Many homes identified in the study were priced above $10 million. Notably, listings showed that individuals involved in drug trafficking had paid significantly more for properties than recent sale prices. A $22 million residence in Shaughnessy was connected to a Macau gambler who reportedly secured tens of millions in real estate loans from suspected organized crime lenders tied to Metro Vancouver casinos, according to legal and Lottery Corporation documents. While the gambler bought the Shaughnessy property for $7.5 million in 2011, it was sold for an extraordinary $22 million in 2016, marking a $14 million profit after private lenders sought to enforce loans against the mansion. Since 2012, the gambler has reportedly sold several other homes in Metro Vancouver totaling around $50 million, alongside engaging in 28 suspicious transactions at B.C. Lottery casinos. In 2018, Paul King Jin—a former Richmond massage parlour owner who is under RCMP investigation for potential links to illicit drug trafficking—filed an $8 million lawsuit against the Macau gambler. Jin contended that he had discharged a mortgage on the $22 million home to enable its sale for creditor repayment but claimed he was not compensated due to superior claims from other lenders. The home is now listed as owned by individuals not featured in the police intelligence report. In another notable 2016 transaction, a suspected fentanyl kingpin and loan shark acquired a $3.6 million home in West Vancouver, while another suspect purchased two adjacent properties, each exceeding $3 million, on the same day.

Moreover, one alleged kingpin obtained a $15 million mansion in Shaughnessy and a $3.5 million teardown in South Vancouver, zoned for condo developments. One of the properties highlighted in the study is owned by a Chinese industrialist and Vancouver real estate developer with alleged involvement in drug importation. This individual's family reportedly possesses at least nine properties worth over $60 million in the Vancouver area and has amassed hundreds of acres earmarked for residential development since 2014, including plans for a luxury condo tower in Vancouver. Global News has been unable to contact the owner for comments on these allegations. Further inquiry revealed ties to an alleged illegal casino in Richmond, believed to be operated by the Big Circle Boys, and connections to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Another Vancouver mansion connected to the Big Circle Boys was in the news in 2007 when its owner—a high-priority crime target—was killed outside the property. The current owner, identified as a Richmond real estate agent, reportedly has close ties to a B.C. Lottery Corporation gambler implicated in a $500 million corruption case in China. The study also indicated that criminals in China are purchasing B.C. real estate anonymously using Bitcoin, a currency favoured by drug traffickers. For instance, one Beijing Craigslist ad listed an eight-bedroom mansion in Coquitlam for 1,075 bitcoins, or approximately $3.3 million. These findings emerge amid a housing affordability crisis in Metro Vancouver, where many properties remain unoccupied and appear to be purchased on paper by relatives of suspected criminals. Investigators were surprised to find that some convicted drug traffickers did not even attempt to hide their property acquisitions. Compounding the issue, the RCMP is lacking the necessary resources to tackle the extensive money laundering operations in Vancouver, according to a source. Meanwhile, home prices have surged threefold since 2005. Since late 2012, there has been a sharp increase in home prices across the Lower Mainland. Analysts speculate that an influx of capital from China has disrupted the correlation between housing prices and Vancouver's median household income of $72,000—the lowest among major Canadian cities and ranking 50th in North America. Urban planning expert Andy Yan from Simon Fraser University noted that the data on money laundering in real estate helps clarify the ongoing situation in Vancouver, labelling it "financial fentanyl" that exacerbates the real estate crisis. "You may have identified $1 billion, but it's likely compounded in the banking system, mixing illegal and legitimate funds to form a toxic concoction—a matter of national security and financial integrity," Yan asserted. Global News' examination of government documents revealed that beginning in 2012, loan sharks linked to Chinese gangs and VIP gamblers significantly increased cash transactions in Vancouver-area casinos suspected of involving drug money. Suspicious cash transactions in these casinos amounted to $64 million in 2012, $119 million in 2016, and $66 million in 2017; however, 2015 saw a staggering spike to $176 million, with $136 million transacted in $20 bills alone. As casino money laundering reached what is suspected to be a record high, home prices in the Lower Mainland rose by over 30 percent in the same year. According to an expert on fentanyl trafficking, the laundering methods employed by Chinese crime groups in Vancouver have been consistent since the 1990s. "The same individuals continue to engage in these practices, increasing their legitimate appearance over time," the expert observed. "They often purchase dilapidated homes, renovate them, and transform them into mansions—one Chinese heroin kingpin is known to have laundered eight homes in Vancouver personally." For about two decades, law enforcement in Vancouver has believed that the Big Circle Boys and their affiliates utilized B.C. casinos for drug distribution and money exchanges, maintaining that the drug traffickers could claim casino transactions as a legitimate source for their money if apprehended by police. Today, nearly every drug seizure in the city uncovers some form of synthetic opioid produced in Chinese factories. Cocaine remains the most frequently seized drug in Vancouver; however, experts anticipate that fentanyl will surpass it as the most prevalent drug by the end of 2018. As fentanyl kingpins profit and real estate prices soar, the repercussions of the opioid crisis have expanded beyond Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, affecting communities across Canada and contributing to a tragic loss of life. "Welfare spending ultimately benefits those exacerbating the housing affordability crisis," one law enforcement source indicated. Last year, almost 4,000 Canadians died due to opioid-related overdoses, predominantly involving fentanyl.
A covert police investigation reveals that crime syndicates may have laundered more than $1 billion through properties in Vancouver in 2016.
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Preliminary government data for 2018 showed that over 1,000 Canadians succumbed to opioid overdoses in just the first quarter—averaging more than 11 deaths per day. Senator Vernon White, a former police chief advocating for measures to curb fentanyl imports from China, identified opioid deaths and housing affordability as pressing threats to Canadian society. "During my 33 years in law enforcement, I have never witnessed a drug with such profitability as fentanyl," White stated. "This represents a security risk. If terrorists were responsible for thousands of deaths annually, we would be compelled to take action." A 2017 ruling by the B.C. Supreme Court indicated that drug traffickers could transform one kilogram of heroin, worth $70,000, blended with $12,500 of fentanyl powder, into 100 kilograms of counterfeit heroin valued at approximately $7 million on the street. This mixing of various substances with fentanyl—a drug 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine—has dramatically increased fatal overdoses. Moreover, even before fentanyl circulated widely, Canadian courts had identified the Big Circle Boys as the predominant Chinese crime syndicate contributing to opioid overdose fatalities. A convicted leader of the Big Circle Boys, based in Toronto, admitted to causing heroin-related overdose deaths in Vancouver and southern Ontario, acknowledging that he repatriated substantial drug profits to China to establish businesses, including a coal mine.

Source@ Globalnews

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