(Bloomberg) --
Canada is making a last-minute effort in Washington to convince US President Donald Trump that it’s taking serious measures to improve border security as it tries to avert tariffs.
Top ministers overseeing foreign affairs, immigration and public safety are in the US capital to lobby Republicans. In an attempt to visually display muscle at the border, Canadian officials have used video footage of newly acquired Black Hawk helicopters that are being deployed in patrols, while Alberta’s premier invited a Fox News crew to film police who are monitoring the part of the border the province shares with Montana.
Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc sent a video to Howard Lutnick, Trump’s pick for commerce secretary, that included time-lapse footage of a border area to show the absence of people crossing illegally, according to one person with knowledge of the matter, asking not be named discussing private conversations.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump intends to move ahead with plans on Saturday to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada and a 10% levy on China, citing the trafficking of fentanyl as a major reason for the move.
“Right now, we’re showing the new American administration that they have a strong partner in Canada when it comes to upholding border security,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters Friday. “Our border is safe and secure, and less than 1% of fentanyl and illegal crossings into the US come from Canada. We’re committed to keeping it that way by addressing our current challenges and strengthening our capacity.”
Illicit fentanyl in the US is primarily manufactured abroad and smuggled into the country through Mexico, though some does enter through Canada.
Similar to the US, Canada is experiencing an opioid epidemic that’s responsible for tens of thousands of deaths. In fact, the countries are the world’s largest consumers of opioids per capita. After the Covid-19 pandemic, Canada has seen an increase in the domestic production of fentanyl that caters to both local and international markets — although it doesn’t appear to be a major supplier of the US.
US authorities seized about 50 pounds of fentanyl at the Canada-US border last year, compared with 20,600 pounds at the Mexico border, according to data from US Customs and Border Protection.
The Chinese government’s move to make fentanyl a controlled substance in 2019, border closures during the Covid pandemic and access to the precursors required to make the finished products all contributed to the surge in Canadian production. Illicit groups shifted away from smuggling fentanyl in pills from abroad to importing the precursors and producing it locally.
In 2022, there was a spike in exports of fentanyl from Canada to Australia and New Zealand as organized crime groups tried to gain traction and drug clientele in those nations, according to Daniel Anson, director general for intelligence and investigations at the Canada Border Services Agency.
“There was a period of time where we were highly concerned about fentanyl exports. The pattern has since subsided. But we need to earn that every day. The patterns can shift,” Anson said in an interview.
“I don’t think there’s anything that we’re more serious about. It is our enforcement priority No. 1.”
Compared with plant-based drugs like cocaine and heroin, fentanyl is relatively easy to make because many of the chemicals required can be procured locally, bought online or imported from China. The production can be done at a low cost and only requires a simple recipe. Clandestine laboratories can be set up in houses in residential neighborhoods or in rural towns, hidden inside shipping containers.
“When you have a drug that can be mailed in small packages, focusing on border security — although it can be part of supply reduction program — is not going to be the silver bullet,” said Alexander Caudarella, chief executive officer of the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction. “There’s nothing to indicate that the manufacturing of fentanyl in Canada is what’s fueling the epidemic in the US.”
Drug-Detecting Dogs
In an effort to appease the Trump administration, Trudeau’s government announced in December a C$1.3 billion ($900 million) border plan to bolster security and curb the movement of both drugs and migrants. The new Black Hawk helicopters are part of that plan, and additional canine teams and imaging tools have been deployed to detect fentanyl.
Canada’s efforts so far have been “more superficial than substantive” and fentanyl is merely a symptom of a much larger problem with transnational organized crime groups that are based in Canada, said Calvin Chrustie, founder of Critical Risk Team consultancy and a former senior officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
“We have an ecosystem within Canada that facilitates, enables and almost has a fertilizing effect on these transnational organized crime networks that are running global enterprises, producing not only synthetic drugs but also carrying out illicit finance activities,” Chrustie said in an interview.
According to report by the federal agency Criminal Intelligence Service Canada, there are hundreds of organized crime groups based in the country that are involved in either the production or shipment of fentanyl.
Meaningful changes would involve reforming the legal and immigration systems as well as addressing “fractured security and intelligence apparatus that’s underfunded,” Chrustie said. “If I was sitting across the border and asked whether several helicopters are going to have a substantive impact, I don’t think so.”
--With assistance from Brian Platt.
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