A man once wounded in a Surrey gangland shooting and now believed to be the North American leader of a global drug syndicate is behind bars in the United States after investigations into a massive drug ring.
An arrest warrant affidavit for a charge of conspiracy to export at least 50 grams of methamphetamine was filed for Opinder Singh Sian in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on Feb. 23, 2024.
However, that affidavit reveals a conspiracy to move tons of drugs on an international scale.
A 2014 Immigration and Refugee Board decision said Sian has criminal convictions for careless use of a firearm and obstruction of a peace officer in 2007. That decision also said he was a victim of a drive-by shooting in his own driveway where a friend was killed. Sian suffered from multiple gunshot wounds.
Now, in the affidavit, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) special agent Al Polito details how Sian was allegedly involved in drug movements involving the United States, Turkey and Australia.
The investigation began with a June 2022 lead in Turkey where the DEA became aware of the chance “to insert a confidential source playing the role of an international transportation coordinator into an international drug trafficking organization that needed help transporting drugs from Southern California to Australia and other destinations.”
That led to Sian getting that source’s phone number, the affidavit said, and to coordinating deliveries of methamphetamine from co-conspirators to people in Southern California for shipment to Australia.
“Specifically, Sian and his co-conspirators arranged four drop-offs of methamphetamine to (the source) in Southern California for shipment to Australia, including approximately 30 pounds of methamphetamine on June 22, 2023; 200 pounds of methamphetamine on July 6, 2023; 100 pounds of methamphetamine on Aug. 21, 2023; and 200 pounds of methamphetamine on Aug. 28, 2023,” the affidavit said.
After the drugs were picked up, sham packages were created and tracking devices put in them for the Australian pickup.
“The Australians then raided the stash house and soon thereafter arrested the receiving couriers,” the affidavit said.
The Vancouver meeting
It was Feb. 1, 2023 that the source and Sian met up in Vancouver, the document said.
Sian told the source that, in Canada, he works with Irish organized crime, specifically, the Kinahan family, Italian organized crime and other Canadian organized crime groups.
“Sian also explained that he obtained drugs through contacts with drug cartels in Mexico and South America. Sian again stated that he worked with a known drug kingpin, based out of Turkey, named Hakan Arif,” the affidavit said.
When the source and Sian were in Vancouver, Sian introduced the person to two male associates, explaining that they had about 500 kilograms of cocaine and needed help getting it through Los Angeles ports and then on to Australia.
The affidavit said the source claimed that they could arrange for the drugs to be offloaded in Los Angeles, repackaged and put on a container ship to Australia.
After that meeting, Polito’s affidavit said, Sian and others continued to reach out to the source about moving drugs for them from South America and Mexico to or through Southern California to Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
So, beginning in June 2023, the source began communicating with Sian about bulk methamphetamine deliveries that would be made to the source’s purported criminal associates in the Los Angeles area with a final Australian destination.
Sian told the source he and his associates would be delivering an estimated 500-750 kilograms of methamphetamine. They'd be separate deliveries coordinated by Sian’s associates.
Then, Sebastian Rollin, believed to live in Montreal and allegedly a Sian associate, told the source his people would be dropping off 30 pounds of methamphetamine to the source in Southern California.
Sian said the person sourcing the narcotics used to live in Colombia and that is where he met the sources of supply for the narcotics, the affidavit said.
Drugs picked up by undercover officer
On June 22, 2023, after some messaging between involved people, arrangements were made for delivery of methamphetamine. It arrived in a cardboard box seized by police
“The suspected methamphetamine was tested [at] the southwest regional laboratory, and found to contain 13.3 kilograms of methamphetamine that was 97 per cent pure, yielding 12.91 kilograms of actual methamphetamine,” the affidavit said.
Also in June 2022, Sian set up a group chat that included Jatinder Kular, an alleged Vancouver associate of his.
“In that chat, the parties discussed (the source) using her contacts to send 200 pounds of methamphetamine to Australia from the Port of Long Beach,” the document said.
On July 6, 2023, an undercover officer picked up approximately 80.3 kilograms of methamphetamine from Sian’s co-conspirators, the affidavit said.
The seized material was tested by a DEA lab, which found that it contained 84.6 kilograms of methamphetamine that was 95 per cent pure, yielding 80.3 kilograms of methamphetamine.
Fentanyl
The group also became involved with precursor chemicals for fentanyl production.
The affidavit said Sian had messaged he could get the chemicals directly from China. He later told a source he could have a sample sent to a post office box.
On Aug. 18, 2023, agents checked the undercover box, and found an envelope containing a white powdery substance which tested to be a fentanyl precursor.
Two days earlier, an agent met with Sian, Peter Peng Zhou and an unknown Southeast Asian male in Vancouver.
“Zhou began by asking if (the source) could sell him bulk cocaine or methamphetamine in the Los Angeles area, that he had access to transportation that could send the narcotics from Los Angeles to the Vancouver area,” the affidavit said.
“Zhou said that he would be getting the precursors from China in Vancouver and send them to Los Angeles, via his trucking company,” the affidavit said.
That same day, the source and Sian met with a man later identified as Kular, at a downtown Vancouver restaurant.
The affidavit said Kular told the source that his boss, later identified as a Chinese national named Tien Truong, dealt mostly out of the Toronto area.
“Kular said that Truong's bosses were based out of Hong Kong,” the document said. “Truong and his organization move ton quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine around the world.”
And, the document said, Kular boasted he had moved nearly two tons of methamphetamine through Los Angeles in previous years.
Conversations soon turned to Africa, with Sian saying Ibrahim Ozcelik was giving him a ton of narcotics, without specifying which ones.
“Sian said the narcotics had landed in Africa, and Ozcelik was looking for Sian to help him find buyers for it,” the affidavit said.
The 24-page affidavit continues, and mentions seizures of a further 300 pounds of methamphetamine in the Los Angeles area.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
Sian is expected to have a U.S. court appearance July 21.
