BURST
A Surrey gangster linked to the Brothers Keepers has pleaded guilty in California to conspiracy for his role in smuggling methamphetamine around the globe.
Opinder Singh Sian, who was indicted last summer, entered the guilty plea on Monday before U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter, court records show.
The 16-page plea agreement, signed by Sian and his lawyer on Nov. 12, said there would be a recommendation for a lower sentence because of the guilty plea. The mandatory minimum for the crime is 10 years, with the maximum being life.
The plea deal says that between Sept. 27, 2022 and Oct. 22, 2023, Sian “knowingly and intentionally conspired and agreed with co-conspirators to export methamphetamine from the Port of Long Beach, California, to Sydney, Australia.”
The document also said that during the conspiracy, he “co-ordinated the delivery of methamphetamine on behalf of co-conspirators to an individual who (the) defendant believed would facilitate the transportation of methamphetamine” to Australia. But the person was in fact a confidential informant” working at the direction of the Drug Enforcement Administration.”
It states that on four occasions in the summer of 2023, Sian arranged for a total of 220.7 kilograms of methamphetamine to be shipped to the lucrative Australian drug market, where a single kilo can cost up to $200,000.
Postmedia has reported extensively on the role of B.C. gangsters in smuggling meth to Oceania.
On June 22, 2023, Sian worked on behalf of someone identified only co-conspirator 1, to arrange for 12.91 kilograms of meth to be delivered to individuals he believed were associates of the informant, the plea document said. The “associates” were working for the DEA.
He planned another load on July 6 of 80.3 kilograms for export out of the port to Australia. A third load of 40.6 kilograms was arranged on Aug. 21, while the final delivery cited in the plea deal occurred on Aug. 28 was of 86.9 kilograms of meth destined for Australia.
“Based on these facts, (the) defendant admits and agrees that he knowingly and intentionally participated in the charged conspiracy and that the charged conspiracy involved at least 220.7 kilograms of actual methamphetamine,” it says.
No sentencing date is mentioned in the court file.
Sian survived Surrey shootings in 2008 and 2011. He was arrested in June in Nevada.
The original criminal complaint said that at one point during the three-year investigation, Sian allegedly told a confidential source that he worked 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.”
The Kinahan gang started in Dublin in the 90s, but is now headquartered in Dubai. It has close ties to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel.
The investigation that led to Sian’s arrest began in June 2022 when the DEA’s office in Ankara, Turkey, saw an opportunity to “insert a confidential source (CS-1) 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.”
A gang member in Turkey gave CS-1 Sian’s phone number, identifying him as the North American leader of the drug trafficking organization, the criminal complaint against Sian says.
“Sian and CS-1 subsequently held several in-person meetings and communicated via phone calls and the Threema messaging application in order to co-ordinate multiple deliveries of methamphetamine from co-conspirators to CS-1 in Southern California for shipment to Australia,” says the complaint, signed by DEA special agent Albert Polito.
Sian unwittingly met the confidential source in both Vancouver and California in early 2023, arranging four drop offs of methamphetamine totalling more than 240 kilograms throughout the summer of 2023.
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