VANCOUVER, Canada — Around the time Canadian police uncovered a massive Chinese drug cash bank in Richmond, B.C.—exposing the so-called Vancouver Model of transnational money laundering—investigators made another stunning discovery that has never before been publicly disclosed.
According to sources with direct knowledge, operatives tied to Beijing’s foreign influence arm, the United Front Work Department, were orchestrating a parallel cannabis trafficking and money laundering operation—leveraging Canada’s legalization of marijuana to export the lucrative commodity to the United States and Japan. The scheme used short-term rental platforms to operate illicit cannabis brokerage houses in Vancouver, aggregating product from vast acreages across Western Canada and shipping it to destinations including Tokyo and New York City. Proceeds were collected in United Front-linked drug cash brokerages in those cities and laundered back through Canadian banks.
