OTTAWA—LOS ANGELESIn today’s Bureau podcast, Sam Cooper and Chris Meyer of Widefountain dig into the dramatic escape of Zhi Dong Zhang — code-named “Chino” — from house arrest in Mexico City just as U.S. courts unsealed a 30-page detention memo. Born in Beijing in 1987, Zhang is alleged to have commanded both Chinese and Mexican wings of cartel operations, controlling 150 companies and 170 bank accounts, training operatives on U.S. soil, and bridging fentanyl precursor supply for both Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels.

Sam and Chris compare Zhang’s role to Chi Lop Tse, the Toronto-based architect of Sam Gor, and Zhenli Ye Gon, the Mexico City meth baron with $207 million seized from his mansion. The discussion highlights how CCP-linked actors shaped these figures by controlling precursors, finance, and cartel connectivity — and how U.S. intelligence now openly states Beijing subsidizes fentanyl production abroad.

The episode closes with reflections on Xi Jinping’s tightening but fragile grip on power. Chris details the reformist challenge inside the Party, the seaside conclave without a clear successor, and the unforgettable scene of Hu Jintao being escorted out of a Party Congress meeting. Together, Sam and Chris suggest Xi’s dominance is showing cracks, even as CCP influence over transnational crime continues to expand.

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In this episode of The Bureau Podcast, investigative journalist Sam Cooper sits down with Chris Meyer of WideFountain to trace the stunning global patterns of cartel, Triad, and Chinese Communist Party–linked networks penetrating legitimate trade structures to launder narcotics proceeds and move fentanyl and meth invisibly around the world.

Together, they examine how cartels and Chinese Triads exploit commodities, corporate shells, and international trade routes—controlling entire sectors like oil, seafood, and luxury goods—as part of a new hybrid criminal statecraft that links Mexico, Canada, China, and beyond.

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Key Themes in This Episode

* Cartel Oil Corruption in MexicoWe break down a new U.S. indictment from Houston, charging Mexican nationals with bribing officials at Pemex. Documents suggest the scheme is one piece of a vast conspiracy in which cartels steal and smuggle crude oil across the U.S. border, refine it, and sell it globally—while laundering fentanyl and meth profits through the same pipelines of trade.

* Casino Intel: Triads & Cartels in VancouverA classified Canadian source revealed explosive evidence seized from an underground Richmond mansion casino, where a Triad operative’s phone exposed over a thousand messages with Mexican cartel counterparts. Beyond drug logistics, the communications showed how these groups use commodities—everything from avocados and limes to geoduck clams and lobsters—to wash dirty money through trade-based laundering.

* Historic Parallels: The Lai Changxing Smuggling EmpireCooper and Meyer revisit the case that first brought them together—Lai Changxing’s notorious Xiamen-based smuggling syndicate. At its core, Meyer argues, Lai’s contraband empire was not just about oil, narcotics, and luxury goods, but a covert PRC military intelligence operation. The parallels to today’s cartel-Triad partnerships are striking.

Why It Matters

* Trade-based money laundering (TBML) has become the central node where narcotics, corruption, and geopolitics converge.

* The same methods that once fueled Lai Changxing’s empire now enable Mexican cartels and Triads to move fentanyl proceeds at scale, under the radar of Western regulators.

* With governments often paralyzed or complicit, these networks function as a “shadow state” embedded in legitimate economies—from Vancouver real estate and casinos, to Mexican energy, to global shipping routes.

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In this sweeping conversation with Jason James of BNN, I discuss some of The Bureau’s biggest investigations of the summer — including the widening pattern of prosecutorial failures in major synthetic narcotics and money laundering cases in British Columbia. We spotlight the recent collapse of charges against a Chinese-state linked scientist accused of importing over 100 kilograms of precursors for MDMA production.

I connect the networks involved to entities previously entangled in the RCMP’s infamous E-Pirate probe, then broaden the lens to examine organized crime's penetration of British Columbia institutions — including the province’s auto insurer.

We also dig into the geopolitical and financial stakes behind Premier David Eby and BC Ferries’ controversial $1-billion deal to build vessels in China with a military-linked state shipyard — a project reportedly financed through a federal development bank overseen by Canada’s new Housing Minister, Gregor Robertson. As Vancouver’s former mayor, Robertson and his council were previously embroiled in questions surrounding Chinese political influence and real estate investment in British Columbia. The question of foreign investment in Canadian cities has returned to the forefront in Victoria and Ottawa.

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OTTAWA — A prominent former Canadian Special Forces operator who continues to train law enforcement says his former unit, Joint Task Force 2 (JTF2), should be granted the authorities and mandate to target fentanyl superlabs and dismantle the transnational narco-terror networks now embedding across Canada — from Chinese Communist Party proxies to cartel cells crossing the southern B.C. border with grenades and Mexican passports.

“This is our problem. It’s on our soil,” former JTF2 member Randy Turner says in an exchange with investigative reporter Sam Cooper of The Bureau. “And our kids are the ones that are going to feel the wrath of it. So we need to do something about it — and do something about it right now.”

This unique back-and-forth interview — with Turner questioning Cooper on his expertise and prescription for better national security outcomes in North America, and Cooper in turn questioning Turner — has also been posted to Turner’s Direct Action podcast.

Midway through the conversation, Cooper puts the national security question bluntly: now that Ottawa has followed the Trump administration’s lead and designated Mexican cartels operating on Canadian soil as terror entities, should JTF2 be granted clearance and authority to target transnational narco-terror threats inside Canada?

Framing the discussion, Cooper notes that — just as U.S. national security officials like Kash Patel have said — it is cartel syndicates working with Chinese Communist Party and Iranian threat networks, particularly in cities like Vancouver, that encapsulate the deadly scourge of fentanyl killing tens of thousands of young North Americans every year.

He presses the point: should the cartels and Chinese networks now operating in Canada be considered executable targets for JTF2, which is mandated to counter terror threats on Canadian soil?

Cooper points to evidence in court records — including arrests of cartel operatives at a house in Surrey, British Columbia, where police seized grenades, dozens of Mexican passports, and heavy weaponry consistent with open warfare.

Turner’s answer is unequivocal. “We have forces and people and professionals and talented individuals that have a solution to these problems. Let them do their work.”

“There’s pieces and parts to ensure successful missions like this go off — but it would start with policy change,” he explained. “And it would start with having a legitimate conversation about: what action steps are we going to put into place right now? What can we change? And why have we not yet? There are some things that could have been put in place years ago.”

“I think part of that is the public conversation,” Cooper responded. “First, knowing we have the capabilities. Second, admitting we have the problem.

Yeah — our borders have been weak.Yeah — we do have fentanyl superlabs.Yeah — Vancouver and Toronto are laundering trillions — over a trillion dollars, my research shows — from these networks.

“And it’s impacting every part of your life, and your children’s lives to come. Can they compete for a home?”

Throughout the conversation, which traces both of their professional paths, Cooper explains why he sought out Turner for personal defense training. It followed a judicially authorized RCMP warning in July 2023: Cooper had been identified as a target of transnational repression due to his reporting on People’s Republic of China operations in Canada.

Like some of Turner’s other private clients, Cooper chose to train with someone who understood the terrain — hostile surveillance, targeted intimidation, and potential conflict.

In a wide-ranging exchange covering national security policy and what both described as Canada’s cultural blindness to foreign threats, Turner delivered a blunt message. He criticized what he sees as a passive-aggressive Canadian response to increasingly urgent warnings from U.S. intelligence and law enforcement — and called for a national shift in mindset.

“Sometimes I get fired up,” Turner said. “And I will sometimes say things that are, you know, rightfully emotionally driven. It’s because I give a s**t. And I’m also very wide awake to what’s going on.

“Until we start, as a Canadian collective, coming together, working together, and sharing these ideas with each other and actually taking a stance — it’s only gonna get worse. And for Canadians out there that believe otherwise, you need to get your head out of the sand, look up, and shake your head a little bit. Take heed to what’s actually happening right here in Canada.”

“I’ve said before, let’s apply the passion we do to the hockey playoffs to other things going on in the country,” Cooper responded. “If someone runs your goalie, you don’t let that stand. We’re letting our country be run over.”

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OTTAWA / LOS ANGELES — In this discussion with Chris Meyer of Widefountain, we dig deeper into my findings on an explosive narcotics precursor case quietly dropped by Canadian prosecutors—and what it reveals about Canada's growing vulnerabilities to foreign infiltration.

We unpack the story of a Chinese chemist, known here as Dr. X, who was charged with importing more than 100 kilograms of PMK ethyl glycidate—a key chemical used in the production of MDMA (ecstasy). Court records in combination with open source findings show Dr. X had direct ties to a bio-pharmaceutical firm affiliated with the University of British Columbia, and was reportedly recruited under Beijing’s “Thousand Talents Plan”—a program U.S. intelligence agencies warn is used to facilitate espionage and the transfer of dual-use technologies.

The case forms part of a broader pattern uncovered by The Bureau and Widefountain, pointing to Chinese state-linked facilitation of poly-drug trafficking and money laundering operations across the Western Hemisphere.

This episode raises urgent questions about the deepening intersection between synthetic drug networks and foreign interference efforts operating within Canada.

We explore new revelations from The Bureau’s reporting, including:

* Dr. X’s links to community groups operating under the CCP’s United Front Work Department, Beijing’s overseas influence arm.

* Her affiliation with Zhejiang University, an institution flagged for ties to China’s Ministry of State Security.

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OTTAWA/LOS ANGELES — Chris Meyer of Widefountain returns to question The Bureau on findings from The Quiet Invasion—a landmark timeline investigation into how Vancouver became a beachhead for transnational organized crime and Chinese hybrid warfare. What began in the late 1980s as low-profile infiltration by Chinese Triads has evolved into a full-spectrum crisis involving encrypted telecoms, fentanyl superlabs, and political access reaching Canada’s highest offices. In this episode, Meyer and Sam Cooper discuss the range of findings, including Canadian vulnerabilities now believed to be of deep concern to the U.S. government.

For example, one firm in a cluster of Vancouver-based encrypted communications companies—linked to Mexican cartels, Hezbollah narco-terror networks, and PRC-affiliated clients, and flagged by U.S. agencies—was found to share an address with a chemical import business. That company received at least 85 tons of precursor chemicals used in the production of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and MDMA. The shipments coincided with the early explosion of fentanyl overdoses across Canada—and what Five Eyes enforcement experts now identify as a dual-threat: a tech front shielding cartel and Chinese actors, while facilitating the chemical backbone of the opioid crisis.

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OTTAWA–LOS ANGELES — In this special investigative discussion, Sam Cooper sits down with Chris Meyer of WideFountain to dissect the Chinese Communist Party’s long game—and its convergence with transnational organized crime—in infiltrating North America’s western front.

As The Bureau prepares a sweeping timeline investigation into Chinese, Mexican, and Iranian threat networks saturating Vancouver, Meyer offers a penetrating historical lens: tracing how CCP leadership, beginning in the Deng Xiaoping era, allegedly embraced corruption, money laundering, and narcotics as instruments of geopolitical disruption aimed squarely at the West.

Together, Cooper and Meyer begin connecting the transpacific dots—from encrypted communications firms and the emergence of fentanyl labs in Vancouver, to the rise of Sam Gor, China’s most powerful narco-trafficking syndicate, and its suspected ties to Beijing’s internal security apparatus. They examine how United Front and military intelligence strategies, launched more than four decades ago, set out to infiltrate North America—beginning with Los Angeles and Vancouver, while simultaneously targeting the White House—through ports, political networks, and elite capture.

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In this urgent breaking edition of The Bureau, investigative journalist Sam Cooper connects with frequent contributor Adam Zivo, live from Jerusalem, as day six of the war between Israel and Iran unfolds. Despite headlines warning of global escalation, Zivo reports a surprisingly calm atmosphere in Israel—even as tensions peak with Iran’s Supreme Leader threatening “irreparable damage” should the United States join Israel’s military operations.

Zivo shares that the Israeli public has largely accepted direct conflict with Iran as inevitable, viewing the regime in Tehran—the “big boss” of proxy militias across the region—as the true adversary. In a shift, many Israelis, he says, believe military focus should pivot away from Gaza and directly toward Iran.

Meanwhile, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed President Trump’s call for “unconditional surrender” in a televised statement, warning that U.S. military intervention would be met with devastating consequences. Trump, who has signaled reluctance to enter another Middle East war, warned this week that “our patience is wearing thin.”

As the conflict deepens, this episode brings rare insight into how Israel is absorbing the war’s escalation—and where public opinion may be pushing next.

Key Topics:

* Zivo’s firsthand account of Jerusalem’s mood amid war

* Public sentiment in Israel on Iran vs. Gaza

* The potential for U.S. military involvement

* Strategic implications of a broader regime-targeting campaign

Listen now for exclusive on-the-ground reporting and sharp geopolitical analysis from The Bureau.

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In this episode, Sam Cooper sits down with Jason James of BNN to examine The Bureau's months-long investigation into the convergence of Chinese state-backed fentanyl networks, Mexican cartels, and Iranian proxy groups. The conversation revisits key findings from Wilful Blindness (2021), which first exposed how Vancouver’s port and economy were exploited as gateways for China’s transnational narcotics and money laundering operations.

Together, Sam and Jason unpack why U.S. authorities are now publicly affirming the very networks and vulnerabilities previously dismissed in Canada—and why, despite mounting evidence, a bloc within Canadian politics and media continues to fiercely deny the scope of the threat.

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Sam welcomes back Chris Meyer from Wide Fountain to break down The Bureau’s explosive reporting with retired DEA agent Don Im—and the chilling implications of what Im and other U.S. experts describe as a “reverse Opium War.”

They trace the roots of Beijing’s alleged silent role in a vast narcotics-finance system: a web of Triads, Communist Party actors, and Western enablers laundering drug proceeds through legitimate trade. From fentanyl warehouses in Vancouver to encrypted cash auctions on WeChat, this is a global operation—sophisticated, deliberate, and devastating.

Chris and Sam explore how Donald Trump’s trade war exposed fractures in a covert global economy—and why emerging signals from within China suggest Xi Jinping’s grip on power may be weakening. As the West confronts the mounting toll of fentanyl, Chris calls for a bipartisan reckoning: no more trade without accountability—and reparations.

This isn’t just a narco story. It’s a story of power, profit, politics—and a clash of civilizations.

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