FBI director again blames Vancouver for fentanyl crisis, but U.S. data says otherwise

Canadian law enforcement continues to dispute claims from the U.S. administration about how much fentanyl is being smuggled across the border.

It follows the latest allegation by the head of the FBI who specifically mentions Vancouver as the source of the problem.

In a recent appearance with podcaster Joe Rogan, FBI Director Kash Patel once again blamed Vancouver for its role in the fentanyl crisis.

“They’re flying it into Vancouver, they’re taking the precursors to Canada, manufacturing up there, and doing their global distribution routes up there because we’ve been so effective down south,” Patel told Rogan.

He also said that stricter enforcement at the Mexican border has resulted in cartels increasingly using Canada as a northern entry point for fentanyl.

However, David Teboul, Assistant Commander of the RCMP, Pacific region, said the assertion that Canada is exporting fentanyl in “significant quantities into the U.S. is not accurate.”

“It is certainly not reflected by Canadian law enforcement agencies’ data, nor is it corroborated either by U. S. agencies, from the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), to the CBP (Customs and Border Protection), to all the partner agencies that we have very good relationships with,” Teboul said.

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“They also don’t corroborate that. It’s been stated many times.”

He did agree that most precursors are coming from China into Canada, but did not agree with the rest of Patel’s statement.

2:10 Trump’s FBI head criticizes Canadian drug enforcement

Data from the U.S. provided to Global News also showed that in the 2024 fiscal year, more than 18,213 pounds of fentanyl were seized at the U.S.-Mexico border.

At the Canada-U.S. border, just over 10 pounds of fentanyl was seized in 2024.

So far this year, more than 7,277 pounds of fentanyl from Mexico were confiscated compared to just over one pound from Canada.

However, one organized crime expert said it is critical not to be distracted by the data.

“The drugs themselves don’t move by themselves, don’t get produced by themselves,” Calvin Chrustie, a senior partner and critical risk consultant with the Critical Risk Team said.

“So let’s have the serious conversation about who are the threat actors, i.e., the criminal organizations. What type of support and enabling do they get from foreign states?”

Chrustie said that B.C. has long been a convergence zone for organized crime groups and Vancouver is a popular choice due to its marine access.

“I don’t think we should be listening to, and I never have, you know, in my career, post my career, to what the political assessment was, because I found it, you know, whether it was south of the border, north of the border, not the most informed historically, this whole issue got politicized,” he added.

“I don’t think you know in terms of calculating the threat and calculating the severity of the problem, how much goes across a border.”

Teboul said B.C. has a coordinated approach to drug trafficking and has had many successes getting drugs off the streets.

“British Columbia is also in a particular predicament, of course, with our very vast, beautiful ocean, but it’s permeable, of course, into the coast of British Columbia, and we need to dedicate some resources and investments at all three levels of government to secure our ports as well,” he added.