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The crime groups聽鈥� mostly based in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec聽鈥� are leaning heavily into the manufacture and exportation of fentanyl and methamphetamine with tough-to-detect labs, according to a recent report by the Criminal Intelligence Service of Canada (CISC), a police information organization.

鈥淟abs increasingly located聽in remote/rural areas, or mobile setups, to obfuscate detection,鈥� the newly released report stated.

鈥淭he number of groups involved in manufacturing has nearly doubled in the past year, from 51 in 2023 to 99 in 2024, one-third of which are also involved in importing.”

An emerging and major market for Canadian criminals is Australia, where street prices for the cheap-to-produce opiate are significantly higher than in Canada.

The American market, meanwhile, is already dominated by Mexican suppliers.

According to U.S. customs data, the Canadian border accounts for less than 0.1 per cent of annual fentanyl seizures 鈥� 43 pounds worth in 2024, compared to 21,100 pounds intercepted at the Mexican border over the same period.

Authorities hosted summit last year

Australian authorities hosted a summit for border agencies around the world, including Canada, in September.

Agencies involved included the Australian Border Force (ABF), Canada Border Services Agency, New Zealand Customs Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Melbourne Airport.

The week-long summit included information sharing on topics that included how to search aircraft, emerging trends by traffickers, mobile X-ray, and how to deploy drug detection dogs.

A key goal for summit participants was to learn ways to target ostensibly reputable companies that move fentanyl, considered 50 times stronger than heroin.

鈥淐riminals attempt to recruit, exploit or coerce trusted insiders, within global supply chains, for the sole purpose of advancing their illicit drug trafficking ventures,鈥� ABF Insp. Karatzas said in a prepared聽statement. 鈥淏order agencies are being tested in ways we have never been tested before.”

Historic bust with a Canadian connection

The heightened Australian interest in Canadian-made fentanyl follows the largest bust of the opiate in Australia鈥檚 history in August 2022, when a 11-kilogram load capable of five million lethal doses was seized.

Authorities found the fentanyl and methamphetamine聽after authorities poked inside a three-tonne wooden lathe sent from Vancouver to Melbourne, Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Australian Border Force said in a joint news release.

The shipment from Vancouver also included 30 kilograms of Canadian-made methamphetamine from Canada.

The discovery came as a shock to Australian authorities.

At the time of the fentanyl bust from Canada, Australian authorities noted that a dose of just 28 mg聽of fentanyl聽鈥� the same weight as a few grains of salt聽鈥� can be fatal.

鈥淎ustralian authorities have only ever detected illicit fentanyl importations in minor amounts聽鈥� all less than 30g (grams) 鈥� with the first case in 2017,鈥� the Australian authorities said at the time of the bust.

鈥淔orensic officers wore protective bio hazard suits during the delicate and complex task of removing the powder from the lathe to protect against any inadvertent skin contact with the drug, which could cause harm, loss of consciousness and even death,鈥� the joint statement said.

Australian authorities suspected criminals there were using the fentanyl to mix into supplies of heroin.

鈥淧eople who use illicit drugs can never be certain what they are ingesting and this seizure highlights the potentially lethal game of Russian roulette they play,鈥� AFP acting commander Anthony Hall said in a prepared聽statement. 鈥淲e don’t want to see Australia joining other countries in that deadly game.”

Criminal groups using dark web聽

The CISC report notes that criminal organizations make fentanyl with precursor chemicals, mostly from China. The crime groups exploit associations with private businesses to buy precursor chemicals and move the finished drug, the report noted.

The large number of groups involved in the fentanyl trade prove just how profitable it is to make and traffic the deadly drug, police said.

Criminals communicate by the dark web and ship the drug by air, marine, land and the postal service, the report noted.

The fentanyl makers are also reportedly active selling the drug inside the country.

Inside Canada, fentanyl-makers use 527 domestic distributors, including outlaw motorcycle gangs and street gangs, as well as the mail, the CISC report said.

Some massive Canadian seizures

There have been several busts at Canadian 鈥渟uper labs “and massive seizures over the past few years.

Last week, the Ontario Provincial Police announced the seizure of 1.5 kilograms of fentanyl in Peterborough. A 26-year-old woman was arrested in the investigation that also involved police from Peterborough, York and Durham.

Last November in Burnaby, B.C., the RCMP鈥檚 Drug and Organized Crime Section took down what they called a fentanyl “super lab,” capable of producing multiple kilograms of fentanyl a week, located on a rural farm property in Langley.

Last October, the RCMP recorded Canada鈥檚 largest-ever fentanyl bust when it dismantled a lab in the tiny hamlet of Falkland, near Kamloops, B.C.

Police then said they seized fentanyl and precursors that could have amounted to more than 95 million potentially lethal doses of fentanyl.

In November 2023, police took down a lab producing fentanyl and seized 2.5聽million street doses聽at rural property in Mission, in southwestern B.C.

In Canada, there were 49,105 apparent opioid deaths between January 2016 and June 2024, with most blamed on fentanyl and fentanyl variations, according to the Canada Gazette. In the U.S., there were an estimated 81,083 opioid overdose deaths in 2023 alone, according to the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics.聽Most of those deaths were from synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl.