The prime minister’s former top security adviser says drug cartel activity in Canada has increased and must be addressed before it goes out of hand.
“I would say that 10, 15, 20 years ago, we would not have used the word ‘cartel’ with regard to activity in Canada, but it’s very prevalent now,” Jody Thomas told Global News’ Mercedes Stephenson in an interview that aired Feb. 23.
Thomas served as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s National Security and Intelligence Advisor (NSIA) from January 2022 to January 2024. She was previously deputy minister of defence.
“It’s becoming a problem, and we have an opportunity here to get a grip on it before it becomes a national crisis,” she said, when asked by Stephenson to comment on Ottawa’s recent decision to list five Mexican drug cartels and two street gangs as terrorist entities.
The federal government made the new terrorist group designation last week, with groups including the Sinaloa Cartel and the street gang Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13.
Thomas, who in her role has seen intelligence on a range of topics produced by domestic and foreign agencies, said in recent years there’s been an increase in organized crime and gang violence being fuelled by drug money.
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“We are being affected in a way we’ve not previously seen. The problems are moving north. The gun problem is moving north. The fentanyl problem exists here,” she said.
Ottawa’s new terrorist entity designations came shortly after Washington made a similar move, listing the same groups as Canada and an additional Mexican cartel.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had announced the decision to list cartels as terrorist entities on Feb. 3, the day U.S. President Donald Trump said he was going forward with 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico over border security and drug trafficking concerns.
Trump later put a 30-day pause on the tariffs to assess the countries’ response to the issues. Trudeau had also announced on Feb. 3 a “fentanyl czar” would be appointed to coordinate Canada’s counter-fentanyl efforts. Former deputy NSIA and deputy RCMP commissioner Kevin Brosseau has since been named to the role.
‘Enormously Helpful’
Thomas said she believes the listing of organized crime groups as terrorist entities will be “enormously helpful” for the RCMP as they seek to crack down on illegal activities. She said it will help facilitate cooperation with the United States and Mexico and make available financial tools like those used by Canada’s financial intelligence agency FINTRAC.
FINTRAC receives reports from financial institutions on a number of indicators, such as large cash transactions or activities potentially linked to money laundering.
“FINTRAC was created to track terrorist financing, to work with banks, and the RCMP will be able to use that information and the power and the capability of FINTRAC in order to assist in their investigations,” Thomas noted, saying this step will be “enormously important” for the RCMP and it will “reap huge benefit.”
The terrorist listing makes it illegal for anyone to conduct a number of activities on behalf of the cartels, such as recruitment or financing. Any Canada-based groups who cooperate with cartels could also be charged for terrorism offences.
“The listing gives law enforcement additional powers to track, trace, find the financing, disrupt it, interrupt it,” Public Safety Minister David McGuinty said last week when announcing the new listings.
“We know that by interrupting the money, we’re going to have a profound influence on the activities of the groups.”
In addition to drug smuggling, Canadian criminal organizations linked to cartels are increasingly involved in money laundering and human smuggling, according to the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada’s public report for 2024.
Along with cartels operating in Canada, Duheme said the RCMP has intelligence indicating Canadians have moved to Mexico and South America to facilitate the shipment of certain commodities to Canada.
