Crime
As Trump 2.0 Scrutinizes Canadian Fentanyl Networks, British Columbia Advances Forfeiture on 14 Properties Linked to Alleged PRC Triad Associate

Vancouver journalist Bob Mackin reported that Paul King Jin, (red shorts and black T-shirt) met with a BC NDP politician at Jin’s boxing gym, which is linked to B.C.’s forfeiture claims. Also at this meeting were members of Beijing’s United Front Work Department groups in Vancouver.
The Pacific coastal metropolis, famous for its gleaming glass towers set against forested mountain peaks, isn’t merely concealing a toxic node of global narco-laundering. It has also become known as the “Dubai of the West” among transnational crime investigators, serving as a key encryption technology hub for various shadowy companies tied to Chinese Triads, Mexican cartels, and Iranian state-sponsored mafias and terror financiers
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — In a long-running legal effort to curb transnational money laundering believed to be fueling North America’s deadly fentanyl trade, the British Columbia Civil Forfeiture Office has secured a procedural victory in its pursuit of 14 Vancouver properties linked to an accused Chinese underworld financier, Paul King Jin.
Jin and his associates in Vancouver and Toronto — tied to “The Company” cartel and the notorious, U.S.-sanctioned Triad leader “Broken Tooth Koi,” according to RCMP sources — have drawn increasing interest from American enforcement and intelligence agencies in recent years.
Despite surmounting a legal hurdle in Jin’s case, Canada’s broader struggle to bring such figures to justice speaks to deep systemic vulnerabilities, enforcement experts say. Meanwhile, the United States grows more impatient with its northern neighbor’s susceptibility to global narcotics trafficking.
David Asher, a senior financial crime investigator in President Trump’s first administration, who recently credited The Bureau’s investigations into fentanyl trafficking networks at a security conference in Vancouver, says Triads in Toronto and Vancouver are “command and control” for laundering warehouses of cash stockpiled across North America by Mexican cartels that distribute toxic opioids for Chinese mafias that provide the precursors.
Citing a July 2024 memo from Asher, CBC reported today that the memo is reportedly now circulating among Trump’s transition team. Asher argues “Canada should be making substantive, systemic changes,” including implementing anti-racketeering laws and sharing intelligence with Washington on Canada-based fentanyl networks, CBC reported.
Asher’s memo does not pull punches.
“The key is to attack Cartel and Triad finances by targeting their complicit financial institutions,” it says, adding there is “massive money laundering” through a specific Canadian bank.
“It appears that almost all leading U.S. banks are complicit in accepting suspected narco cash to purchase real estate from native Communist Chinese investors,” the memo adds.
On paper, the B.C. government’s recent win seems straightforward: In September 2024, the B.C. Supreme Court effectively sided with the Director of Civil Forfeiture, allowing the province to proceed with a case to forfeit roughly $9.5 million in Vancouver-area real estate.
The 14 properties, the government asserts, served as conduits for illicit proceeds — illegal gaming, underground banking, and laundering activities tied to Mr. Jin’s network and, by extension, a web of international criminal enterprises, including Triads and diaspora banking brokers connected to cartels spanning Asia and the Americas.
But this portfolio is only part of the picture. The forfeiture claim notes that after Jin was banned from B.C. casinos, he established illegal gaming houses which, according to official filings, generated more than $32 million in net profit over just four months in 2015. These gambling dens formed another key node in the broader ecosystem of cash-based offenses believed to be driving the surge in dangerous synthetic drugs throughout North America.
The legal drama in B.C.’s latest claim — the fourth forfeiture suit against Jin in three years — began in November 2022. Everwell Knight Limited, a China-incorporated entity registered in Hong Kong that holds mortgages on the 14 contested properties, attempted to have the government’s forfeiture claim dismissed. Everwell argued that the Director of Civil Forfeiture had failed to meet procedural standards. The Vancouver lawyer representing Everwell invoked the Canadian Charter of Rights — a common strategic defense in Canadian money laundering cases.
In April 2023, the Director of Civil Forfeiture responded with an application for judgment by default against Mr. Jin. By failing to file a defense, the Director argued, Mr. Jin effectively conceded key allegations.
This fourth claim also highlights an absurd game of cat and mouse between Jin and the Director.
“Counsel for the Director received a phone call from a lawyer who advised he may be acting for P. Jin with respect to civil forfeiture matters,” the Director’s April 2023 application says. “Since that communication, the Director’s counsel has not received any further communications from that lawyer or from any other lawyer purporting to act for P. Jin in this action.”
The court was asked to deem that Mr. Jin had admitted essential facts, including his true role behind Everwell, YSHJ Investment Holding Ltd., and JYSH Investment Ltd. — entities allegedly held through Jin’s niece as nominee owners.
Everwell, YSHJ Investment Holding Ltd., and JYSH Investment Ltd. have all filed defenses denying any wrongdoing.
Key to B.C.’s case is the allegation that YSHJ and JYSH bought Vancouver properties and soon after, the Hong Kong-based Everwell registered mortgages and assigned rents against the units, suggesting a clever scheme to launder funds via rent and mortgage payments.
“The mortgages held by Everwell against the real property are not legitimate mortgages and were used by the defendants to launder proceeds of crime,” B.C.’s lawsuit says.
But from a broader perspective, B.C.’s procedural win may resemble a Pyrrhic victory. Civil forfeiture often serves as a fallback in Canada because prosecuting sophisticated international money launderers remains daunting. High-profile criminal cases — including the RCMP’s “E-Pirate” probe into the sprawling Richmond, B.C.-based Silver International underground bank, allegedly linked to Mr. Jin and his partner, Jian Jun Zhu — collapsed amid onerous disclosure rules and the immense challenge of translating millions of intercepted communications.
A B.C. special prosecutor’s review of the related “E-Nationalize” investigation, which focused on Mr. Jin’s networks, similarly fell apart. The review cited “considerable dispute” over police-gathered material — including over two million communications needing Chinese translation — and highlighted legislative gaps that make it hard to convict Jin.
Notably, the review acknowledged that running an underground bank like Silver International could be prosecuted as a criminal offense in the U.S. and U.K., but not in Canada.
Civil forfeiture, with its lower burden of proof, can freeze and seize suspicious assets. Yet it does not carry the moral weight or deterrent punch of a criminal sentence. The current case spotlights Jin’s alleged laundering through B.C. casinos and Silver International — the now-defunct underground bank run by Mr. Zhu, who was killed in a 2020 shooting at a Japanese restaurant in Richmond. An RCMP source said that night in the restaurant, senior Toronto-area figures linked to Tse Chi Lop’s “The Company” cartel were present alongside Jin and Zhu, illustrating both the proximity of violence to Jin’s affairs and his apparent ties to Tse’s networks.
According to a report from the Financial Action Task Force, a G7 anti-money laundering initiative, Silver International serviced Asian, Middle Eastern, and Mexican organized crime groups, laundering about $1 billion a year globally. The bank, one of numerous similar outfits in Vancouver and Toronto, was connected to Chinese underground bankers in diaspora communities across Latin America, as well as hundreds of related bank accounts in China, according to the RCMP’s case.
This underscores Vancouver’s role as a nexus in a global scheme that U.S. authorities say directly contributes to the fentanyl crisis ravaging American cities. The Pacific coastal metropolis, famous for its gleaming glass towers set against forested mountain peaks, isn’t merely concealing a toxic node of global narco-laundering. It has also become known as the “Dubai of the West” among transnational crime investigators, serving as a key encryption technology hub for various shadowy companies tied to Chinese Triads, Mexican cartels, and Iranian state-sponsored mafias and terror financiers, as Canada’s case against RCMP intelligence mole Cameron Ortis revealed.
As one senior U.S. law enforcement source familiar with DEA probes into Triad leader Tse Chi Lop — said to control “The Company” network and connected to both Paul Jin and Silver International — explained, “Canada’s lenient laws make it an attractive market.” The source added: “If someone gets caught with a couple of kilos of fentanyl in Canada, the likelihood of facing a 25-year sentence is very low.”
Jin, once targeted by Canada’s most ambitious anti-money laundering efforts, remains unscathed by criminal convictions. Still, Jin’s extensive travels to Mexico, Colombia, and Panama have, according to RCMP sources, led investigators to believe he is leveraging a global network of underground bankers and traffickers. His name surfaces alongside once-dominant figures like Xizhi Li, a Chinese Mexican gangster taken down by the DEA, and Tse Chi Lop, whose arrest in 2021 created a vacuum in major narcotics and money laundering operations.
“Jin has evolved from a local massage parlor manager to someone who has now expanded his business dealings nationally and internationally,” one RCMP source said. “One can surmise that voids are created with the arrests of Li and Tse. And historically speaking, when voids are created, they tend to be filled. The question is: Who is in a position to fill that?”
In recent years Jin was detained and searched by Mexican border officials, the source said. Although he carried nothing substantial beyond a single cannabis gummy and some empty boxes, officials reportedly discovered documents linking him to Vancouver loan-sharking disputes. More tellingly, they found a business card connected to “Broken Tooth Koi,” a Triad leader whose laundering operations stretch from Hong Kong into Canada’s financial systems, as previously documented in filings before the Cullen Commission.
In December 2020 U.S. sanctions highlighted Koi’s links to Beijing.
“Wan Kuok Koi, also commonly known as “Broken Tooth,” is a member of the Communist Party of China’s (CCP) Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference,” the sanctions say, “and is a leader of the 14K Triad, one of the largest Chinese organized criminal organizations in the world that engages in drug trafficking, illegal gambling, racketeering, human trafficking, and a range of other criminal activities.”
“The other piece that will connect to what you are interested in, is [Paul King Jin] had a business card that connects him to Broken Tooth Koi,” the source said. Asked if this indicated Jin was working with ‘The Company’ — a sophisticated Triad-linked entity moving cash worldwide — the source replied, “That would fit.”
“He seems to have stepped into a leadership role,” the source continued. “He has been heading to Central America a lot, and he is barely home anymore.”
The Bureau has not been able to reach Jin for comment through a Vancouver lawyer that represented him at the Cullen Commission.
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2025 Federal Election
China Election Interference – Parties Received Security Briefing Days Ago as SITE Monitors Threats to Conservative Candidate Joe Tay

Sam Cooper
SITE says it is concerned about the Hong Kong bounty on Joe Tay and is monitoring the situation, but confirms intervention in the Chiang case is not within its powers
Canada’s election threat monitoring body has confirmed that national party leaders received a classified security briefing late last week, as public concerns mount over threats tied to transnational repression and a widening controversy involving Liberal MP Paul Chiang’s remarks about Conservative candidate Joe Tay.
The revelation came Monday during a public update by the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force. Allen Sutherland, a senior Privy Council Office official and SITE leader, confirmed the briefing referenced today by Prime Minister Mark Carney covered high-level threat assessments and involved security-cleared representatives from each political party. While SITE would not confirm whether Chiang’s remarks were specifically addressed, the timing suggests they may have been a factor.
“I can speak to a portion of it,” Sutherland said in response to a question from The Canadian Press. “Last week, political parties received a briefing — a security briefing — on threats at the classified level. These are the cleared party representatives of each of the parties. So that briefing took place late last week.”
A CBC reporter also pressed SITE officials on whether they were concerned by Chiang’s comment suggesting Tay could be delivered to the Chinese Consulate to collect a bounty. “I would say SITE is concerned about the bounty placed by Hong Kong on Mr. Tay,” said Laurie Ann Kempton of SITE. “We are aware of the comments.”
Asked what candidates should do if they face similar threats, Kempton said: “They should contact police of local jurisdiction immediately. They are also able to contact SITE and the RCMP if they have other concerns, and we will look at it from there.”
Joe Tay has stated publicly that he fears for his safety and has contacted the RCMP. Asked if police have reached out to Tay proactively, SITE official Greg O’Hayon said: “I’d have to get back to you specifically on whether the RCMP has reached out to Mr. Tay.” He added: “If candidates feel under threat, either immediate or not, I would encourage them to reach out to their local police as well as the Canadian Security Intelligence Service so that we can have a combined response to real and perceived threats.”
SITE officials confirmed that the bounty placed on Tay — a Canadian citizen and pro-democracy activist wanted by Hong Kong authorities under Beijing’s National Security Law — is being tracked as a live case of transnational repression. Officials described the recirculation of bounty-related content online as a coercive tactic employed by Beijing to chill political participation in diaspora communities.
“Spreading the information about the bounty is precisely how malign foreign states seek to silence, harass and coerce,” one SITE official said.
Tay’s situation has quickly become a flashpoint in the 2025 federal election campaign. The Chiang controversy erupted after reports surfaced late last week, based on Ming Pao reporting, indicating that during a January meeting with Chinese-language journalists, Chiang said of Tay: “If you can take him to the Chinese Consulate General in Toronto, you can get the million-dollar reward.”
Chiang also told the exclusive gathering of Chinese journalists that Tay’s election to Parliament, while under a Beijing-issued arrest warrant, would cause a “great controversy.”
Chiang has since said his comment was made in jest and issued a social media apology. But Tay rejected the gesture in a press release Monday, calling it “unsolicited” and demanding that Liberal leader Mark Carney remove Chiang as a candidate.
“Threats like these are the tradecraft of the Chinese Communist Party,” Tay said. “They are intended to send a chilling signal to the entire community in order to force compliance to Beijing’s political goals. This situation has left me fearing for my safety.”
SITE also issued a broader warning on Monday: Canada is seeing a rise in both physical and digital transnational repression, including online harassment, smear campaigns, AI-generated deepfakes, and attempts to dox critics of authoritarian regimes.
“In 2023, we informed the public about a targeted online information operation… aimed at silencing critics of the Chinese Communist Party,” said the SITE representative from Global Affairs Canada. “Now, we’ve seen new operations using deepfake content, including sexually explicit images, to further that goal.”
Come back to The Bureau for updates on this rapidly evolving story.
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2025 Federal Election
Joe Tay Says He Contacted RCMP for Protection, Demands Carney Fire MP Over “Bounty” Remark

Sam Cooper
‘Threats are the tradecraft of the Chinese Communist Party to interfere in Canada … they are intended to send a chilling signal to the entire community‘ Tay states
Joe Tay, the Conservative candidate in Don Valley North, issued a formal statement Monday demanding that Liberal leader Mark Carney remove MP Paul Chiang as the candidate for Markham–Unionville, citing Chiang’s threatening comments and an unsolicited attempt to contact him.
“Mark Carney must fire Paul Chiang,” Tay said in the release. “His threatening public comments were intended to intimidate me, and they must not be tolerated.”
Tay also revealed he has already engaged the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for personal protection, citing growing safety concerns — even before Chiang’s remarks became public.
“This situation has left me fearing for my safety,” he said.
Tay, a Hong Kong-Canadian democracy activist, is wanted by authorities in Hong Kong under the territory’s sweeping National Security Law. In January, Chiang told Chinese-language media that Tay could be brought to the Chinese Consulate in Toronto to collect a one-million-dollar bounty. The remarks, first reported by Ming Pao and widely condemned across party lines, are under growing scrutiny amid allegations of foreign interference in Canada’s 2025 federal election.
Tay confirmed Monday that Chiang made an unsolicited attempt to contact him over the weekend and then posted publicly that he had issued an apology.
“I want to be clear: no apology is sufficient,” Tay said. “Threats like these are the tradecraft of the Chinese Communist Party to interfere in Canada. And they are not just aimed at me — they are intended to send a chilling signal to the entire community in order to force compliance to Beijing’s political goals.”
The Bureau has contacted the RCMP for comment.This is a developing story.
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