Shocking new details are emerging about a major Chinese organized crime suspect who met privately with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, according to a police source who confirmed recent reporting from The Globe and Mail. The individual, Paul King Jin, is allegedly implicated in money laundering operations spanning the Western Hemisphere and has been a target of multiple failed major investigations in British Columbia. These investigations sought to unravel the complex interrelations of underground casinos and real estate investment, fentanyl and methamphetamine trafficking, and financial crimes that allegedly funnel drug proceeds from diaspora community underground banks throughout North America and Latin America, with connections to Chinese and Hong Kong financial institutions.

The failed investigations into Jin have involved both the RCMP and U.S. agencies. These operations stretch from Vancouver to Mexico, Panama, and beyond, multiple sources confirm.

Repeated efforts to reach Jin for comment through his lawyer in the British Columbia Cullen Commission, which stemmed from investigative journalism exposing BC casino money laundering, have not been successful. Recent BC civil forfeiture filings seeking to seize alleged money laundering proceeds from Jin, with cases connecting 14 Vancouver homes to entities in Hong Kong and China, also indicate Jin has not been responsive through a lawyer.

Highlighting longstanding U.S. government concerns over the B.C. investigations and suspects like Jin, Mayor Brad West confirmed in exclusive interviews with The Bureau that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed dismay over Canada’s failure to successfully prosecute Jin and Chinese crime networks, specifically citing the collapse of the E-Pirate investigation. Reportedly Canada’s largest-ever probe into money laundering, E-Pirate fell apart in court after cooperating witnesses were exposed. One of the Chinese Triad narcotics traffickers targeted in E-Pirate surveillance, Richard Yen Fat Chiu, was found stabbed and burned to death near the Venezuelan border on June 20, 2019, according to Colombian news reports.

The Bureau has verified with a source possessing direct knowledge of Canadian policing failures that crucial intelligence regarding Sam Gor—a massive transnational crime syndicate—was provided to the RCMP by U.S. agencies yet failed to result in prosecutions.

One primary source confirmed a new detail reported by The Globe and Mail: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was entangled in an RCMP surveillance operation that targeted Paul Jin and the Sam Gor networks in Richmond, British Columbia. The Globe reported that early in his tenure, Trudeau met with Jin at a closed-door gathering at the Executive Inn Express Richmond, near Vancouver International Airport. Three sources corroborated the meeting according to The Globe, which took place between late 2015 and early 2017. Also present at the meeting was a Chinese army veteran with close ties to Beijing. The Globe noted that the veteran had attended social events with Chinese diplomats, reinforcing concerns about political and security risks posed by these associations.

The Bureau’s police source, who is independent of The Globe’s sources, confirmed they were aware of the RCMP surveillance operation that placed Trudeau, Jin, and the Chinese army veteran together in a private meeting.

Meanwhile, Jin himself has been surveilled in meetings with Chinese police officers who have traveled to Richmond, according to a separate police source with extensive knowledge of Chinese organized crime and influence operations in Canada. Two sources further stated that Jin continues to operate underground casino networks in Richmond, where law enforcement intelligence believes he has erected a mansion using front owners. Membership at this establishment is reportedly set at $100,000 for high-rollers.

According to a criminal intelligence source, Jin has alleged ties to China’s Ministry of Public Security and the network of clandestine Chinese police stations in British Columbia investigated by the RCMP. Two sources confirmed that Jin has allegedly acquired a new luxury mansion in Richmond, registered under a nominee—an established organized crime tactic.

“Jin uses one of his flunkies as a nominee for it. Common practice,” the source said. They further alleged that one of Jin’s associates tied to the mansion was implicated with Jin in a significant 2009 methamphetamine investigation. “Again, the use of nominees for real estate and businesses. Organized crime 101.”

Jin’s activities extend well beyond Canada, two sources alleged.

Jin has also been linked to international criminal networks, with two sources indicating that he and other high-level Canadian Triad associates have been traveling extensively to Panama and other Latin American jurisdictions. These movements align with intelligence connecting Canadian Triads to Mexican cartel operatives, facilitating narcotics trafficking, money laundering, and commodity smuggling into the United States.

Panama, which Trump administration State Secretary Marco Rubio has flagged as a hub of Chinese crime and state influence, has emerged as a focal point for Jin’s operations. “Jin was spending an awful lot more time down in Panama, where we think he is putting a lot of his capital there,” a source familiar with North American law enforcement investigations said. “They have the same kind of problem going on in Panama City as Vancouver, with all of the condo towers, and they’re empty. So people are plowing money into that place too.”

Adding to the concerns, a source disclosed that Jin’s travels to Panama raised red flags within international law enforcement circles. Jin flew from Vancouver to Toronto, then to Mexico City, Colombia, and finally Panama. Upon arrival, Panamanian customs flagged discrepancies in his travel documents, detecting an alternate identity. He was deemed inadmissible and promptly deported along the same route back to Canada.

“They said, ‘No, you’re inadmissible. Something’s wrong here. You’re traveling under this name, but we have you here as another person.’ So Panama punted him and sent him back exactly the same route, and we caught wind of this because of the liaison office down in Bogota,” the source, who could not be identified due to sensitivities in Canada, said. “And they let us know, and locally, the CBSA guys let the Toronto guys know because that’s where he would clear Canada Customs coming back. So they were like, ‘Okay, this is worthy of an interview.’ And they put a flag in the system and everything else.

“To make a long story short, it all fell flat. Nobody interviewed him. He just came right back—came right back to his place here in Vancouver. And so it just shows you the brokenness of our own system, that we can’t even get a key guy like that consistently checked and stopped, and he’s traveling under false papers.”

Jin’s expanding influence in Panama is a significant development aligning with Trump administration concerns, the source said, underscoring broader fears about China’s growing criminal and political footprint in the Western Hemisphere.

The Bureau previously reported that the latest BC civil forfeiture case—the fourth against Jin in three years—suggests he is actively evading British Columbia court procedures. Court filings state that after being banned from British Columbia casinos, Paul King Jin shifted his operations to illegal gaming houses, generating over $32 million in just four months in 2015. These underground casinos became a crucial node in a cash-based network fueling the proliferation of synthetic drugs across North America.

The case intensified in November 2022 when Everwell Knight Limited, a Hong Kong-registered entity holding mortgages on 14 disputed properties linked to Jin, sought to dismiss the government’s forfeiture claim on procedural grounds. Everwell’s legal team invoked the Canadian Charter of Rights—an increasingly common legal strategy in Canadian money laundering cases—arguing that the Director of Civil Forfeiture had failed to meet procedural requirements.

In April 2023, the Director of Civil Forfeiture responded with a default judgment application, contending that Jin’s failure to file a defense effectively conceded key allegations. The case also underscored Jin’s pattern of evasion, with the Director’s counsel noting that an unnamed lawyer initially suggested they might represent Jin but then ceased communication, leaving his legal status unresolved.

Regarding another key Sam Gor associate, E-Pirate target Richard Chiu—the Vancouver-area drug kingpin found burned and stabbed in 2019 near Cúcuta, a city close to the Colombian border with Venezuela—Chiu had previously been convicted in Massachusetts in 2002 for conspiracy to distribute and possess heroin.

According to B.C. Supreme Court documents, Chiu was the subject of multiple Vancouver police drug investigations. In 2017, during one such probe, authorities surveilled an Audi Q7 leased to him. Civil forfeiture filings state that police observed Chiu’s wife, Kimberly Chiu, exiting the vehicle while a “known gang associate” placed a heavy bag into the trunk.

Kimberly Chiu later became the subject of a civil forfeiture case after police seized $317,000 from the Audi—most of it packed in vacuum-sealed bundles inside a duffel bag. However, unlike other suspects, Richard Chiu was never criminally charged in Canada or directly sued by the director of civil forfeiture.

The government’s statement of claim alleged that Kimberly Chiu was “acting as a courier for Asian organized crime,” a claim she denied. In her defense, she argued that Vancouver police had no lawful grounds to detain or search her.

The collapse of E-Pirate and related Canadian law enforcement failures prompted then-B.C. Attorney General David Eby to launch a review, but it led to no legal reforms or policy changes in the province.