While many Canadians associate cartels only with Mexico, nearly mythical names like El Chapo, stories dramatized in Narcos, and multi-billion-dollar criminal empires, they have long been at work within our own borders. For over a decade, it’s been public knowledge that Chapo Guzman and others have operated here to avoid the prospect of harsher prosecution in the United States. These notorious criminals are not distant threats or fictionalized tales; they are entrenched actors in Canada, embedded deeply in our economy, institutions, and communities. Far beyond drug trafficking, they launder billions, finance proxies, and exploit weak laws and fragmented enforcement structures, making them a central pillar of the hybrid threats Canada faces today.

The question Canadians must now confront is simple but urgent: if cartels have been operating here for more than 15 years, steadily increasing their presence and doing so largely outside of the public’s awareness, are our policies, laws, targeting priorities and strategies truly aligned to confront them? A gap in recognition this wide raises the possibility that Canada is not just behind on enforcement, but fundamentally mis framing the threat.

Cartels are intimately connected to states that are hostile to Canada. They do the dirty work of foreign state actors on their behalf by taking advantage of Canada’s vulnerabilities and the impacts have not just been domestic, our prolonged inaction and vulnerability has impacted our standing among our allies, especially the United States.

Canada’s Late Recognition of Cartel Threats

Cartels have only gained serious attention in Canada because of U.S. pressure, where Washington and NATO now treat cartels as tier-one national security threats. Canada, by contrast, has historically framed them as a policing or public safety issue, often lumping them with gangs like the Hells Angels. That framing is outdated and leaves Canada exposed as a weak link in the alliance system.

Canadian policing and political leadership has at times downplayed or mischaracterized the threat, reflecting a broader culture of cognitive dissonance or denial of the threat (i.e. can so-called ‘Mexican Narco’s’ really exist in Canada)? Confronting these networks require not only legal reform but also a cultural shift—ditching political narratives, risk avoidance and accepting the new threat landscape in favor of candid public engagement.

Mexican cartels, including Sinaloa, Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and others, are among the most prolific in Canada. But they do not operate in isolation. They are deeply intertwined with Chinese Triads, Iranian proxies, and increasingly with state interests from China, Iran, and Russia. The result is a converged ecosystem that blends transnational organized crime with geopolitics.

These cartels launder billions, traffic precursor chemicals, distribute methamphetamine and cocaine, engage in human smuggling, lawfare, and manipulating financial systems. They intersect with other vectors of hybrid warfare: illicit finance, terrorism, electoral interference, lawfare, economic coercion, and disinformation campaigns.

Cartels are not peripheral or unsophisticated actors. They are the venture capitalists of hybrid warfare—providing capital, logistics, and cover for hostile states and their proxies. In doing so, they empower the very actors most aligned against Canadian and allied interests.

Concrete Cases That Should Alarm Canadians

The evidence is not speculative—it is visible in public cases:

• In 2023, U.S. Treasury Sanctions identified Canadian chemical suppliers exporting fentanyl precursors to Mexican cartels, highlighting Canada’s role in a global trafficking pipeline.
• Silver International & E-Pirate (BC) exposed massive laundering operations allegedly tied to Chinese and cartel networks. Prosecutions collapsed, despite compelling evidence
• Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (CISC) Estimate: Between $45–$113 billion laundered annually in Canada—rivaling Ottawa’s defense budget.

·        Project Harrington (NS): a two-year RCMP-led undercover operation that uncovered a vast cocaine smuggling network allegedly linking Canadian traffickers to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, led by Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán and Hezbollah-linked networks. Posing as drug transporters, RCMP agents infiltrated the network through figures like Toronto real estate agent Stephen Tello and Ottawa businessman Mathew Fleming, exposing plans to import multi-tonne shipments from South America via the Caribbean into Canada. The operation revealed deep ties between Canadian criminals and international cartels, culminating in multiple arrests and convictions, while also showing that El Chapo had put out a hit on Tello after suspecting him of theft.

• Toronto & Vancouver: Iranian financial networks allegedly fueled by cartel drug profits—arrests made, but no convictions.
• 2025 Arrest (Vancouver): Canadian resident allegedly linked to cartels, Hezbollah, and fentanyl trafficking—detained in the U.S.
• 2025 FBI Most Wanted: a Canadian cartel kingpin – formerly a snowboarder – is allegedly tied to 54 metric tons of cocaine, with alleged links to Iranian, Russian, and Triad actors. 

Each case underscores the same truth: Canada is not a peripheral transit point. We are a strategic hub for cartel convergence. If as a nation we pretend we don’t have a problem, i.e. cartels or the legal framework, the message to the cartels is that Canada remains a haven for their operations. 

U.S. Designations and Canada’s Misreading
The United States and NATO now classify cartels and transnational organized crime as tier-one national security threats. Groups like Sinaloa, CJNG, CDN, Tren de Aragua, and MS-13 have been designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs). These designations are more than symbolic – they bring powerful enforcement mechanisms: FTO status criminalizes any “material support” to the group and bans their members from entering the US, while SDGT status enables the treasury to freeze assets and shut down financial networks globally. Together, they give US law enforcement and prosecutors sharper tools to target networks that operate across borders. NATO experts echo this framing, treating organized crime as part of state-enabled unrestricted warfare, recognizing the role that transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) play in hybrid warfare and in the destabilization of democracies. 

In Canada, however, the American position has been reduced to a single talking point: fentanyl crossing the border. This is out of step with the content of US Executive Orders, which refer to a far broader threat actors and activities. Perhaps used as a pretext for dismissing the threats, the media narrative is causing the issue to be misunderstood and misrepresented. The American executive orders are explicit and unequivocal about the nature of the perceived problems with our public safety and border security: Canada is named as a strategic vulnerability due to the historical cartel activity and systemic failures to equip Canadian police with the legal tools and resources. They list fentanyl production in British Columbia, precursor chemicals, cocaine and methamphetamine trafficking, money laundering, human smuggling, and financial infiltration. Canadians sanctioned by the U.S. are cited as evidence. The scope is tenfold broader than what Canadian politicians, media, and even experts have presented.

Speaking from personal experience, out of 10–15 journalists I have spoken with on this issue, only a few had read the actual Executive Orders. The rest repeated political narratives. The result: Canadians remain misinformed about one of the most critical national and economic security challenges in decades. Allies see this gap as complacency. Addressing the cartel threat may not solve Canada–U.S. tensions, but continued denial will only deepen mistrust with Washington and other partners.

Canada remains dangerously exposed to cartel activity because it has no coherent national security strategy for converged threats, relies on fragmented policing structures, and operates under outdated laws that cripple complex prosecutions. Agencies work in silos, federal policing is chronically underfunded, and legal rulings have made it harder to pursue complex cases. Allies increasingly treat Canada as a weak link due to laws that impede effective collaboration.

To close these gaps, the first step is acknowledgment – treating cartels as strategic threat actors, not just another public safety issue. Canada must modernize its legal system to confront 21^st-century organized crime. In addition, Canada should move quickly to adopt the tools the US has already deployed: designating cartels as terrorist organizations, freezing their assets, and giving prosecutors intelligence-based authorities to disrupt their financial and logistical networks.

Peter Copeland is deputy director of domestic policy at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

Cal Chrustie is a former RCMP senior intelligence officer with deep experience in national security and transnational crime