Commonwealth—Growing concern is being generated within Canada’s foreign intelligence and law enforcement communities about the strengthening of transnational organized crime gangs with Canada in their sights. At least seven major cartels have been confirmed by the RCMP to be active within Canada, and therefore Canada has emerged as an international strategic drug trafficking center.
Seven cartels that have been discovered to be active in Canadian territory include La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Cártel del Golfo, Cártel de Sinaloa, La Familia Michoacana, Cárteles Unidos, Tren de Aragua, and Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación. These dangerous criminal groups, which had initially begun in South and Central America, have now extended their reach northwards into Canada’s territory and widened it, using Canada’s geographical proximity, extensive trade networks, and relatively open economic space.
To the mounting threat, the Canadian government earlier this year formally designated these seven cartels as terror organizations, stating that they are directly engaged in drug trafficking and have an impact on national security. The move is a new policy approach, enabling Canadian authorities to be able to utilize more aggressive counter-terror measures—such as financial sanctions and asset seizure—on the organizations and members.
The tactic employed by cartels in Canada is to make the country a point of production and a point of trans-shipment for the production of synthetic drugs like methamphetamine. International organized crime groups, it has been reported, have been shipping enormous quantities of meth from Canadian ports to profitable markets like New Zealand and Australia. They are especially useful due to the sky-high street price of methamphetamine, up to $300,000 per kilogram in New Zealand—over 30 times the Canadian price.
Statistics compiled by New Zealand Customs demonstrated that during the 2020-2024 time frame, the largest country of origin of methamphetamine seized in New Zealand was Canada, with more than 1,200 kilograms possessing an estimated street value of $350 million. The record shows Canada’s increasing role in the world narcotics business and concomitant criminal activity.
As part of its effort to roll back such cross-border operations, the RCMP has recently busted 11 Canadian meth labs in the past two years. In 2024, police raided a commercially sized dope factory on a farm in Falkland, British Columbia, achieving the biggest bust. The operation, the largest and most sophisticated meth lab in Canada’s history, had a direct connection to a Mexican cartel. 700 kilograms of methamphetamine, 89 weapons, explosives, and body armor were seized by law enforcers, which shows the well-equipped and well-organized state of such criminal activities.
These activities provided evidence that most Canadian meth production methods are the same as those used by Mexican cartels, which indicates professionalization and reallocation of coordination between local and foreign crime syndicates. The RCMP also found various export companies, such as containers full of meth to be exported to foreign markets.
In a bid to enhance international collaboration, the RCMP will be deploying a liaison officer to New Zealand from 2026. The measure will be used to enhance the exchange of information between Canadian law enforcement and New Zealand border guards and customs authorities in reaction to the increased rate of intercepted shipments of drugs of Canadian origin.
Border officers and international crime have cautioned that Canada’s far-reaching web of smugglers—meshed through comparatively lower inspection rates in relation to other countries—is a lucrative entry point for cartels to hide the origin of the production of their products. Border officers in Australia have also reported a recent trend of Canadian-hailing or transiting methamphetamine before surfacing on Australian beaches.
The scale and sophistication of these operations signify the larger issue: transnational cartels are now selling the intelligence of multinational conglomerates. They hunt for weaknesses in the marketplace, exploit lax regulation, and rework logistics plans on the basis of global intelligence for enforcement. The position of Canada in this web of global criminal activity changed from a secondary link to the primary nexus of the global narcotics supply chain.
As the police ramp up the war against the drug labs, shut down shipments, and freeze assets, experts continue to aver that it will take shutting down the source vulnerabilities—port security, financial transparency, and international cooperation—to have any tangible impact. Without international cooperation, Canada will not only be a hub for cartel activity but perhaps an even more hazardous war zone in the war against organized crime.
