Many of the properties of concern are large-acreage farms with cannabis licenses dating back decades—once controlled by B.C. biker gangs, but quietly consolidated since the early 2000s under the influence of figures linked to the Sam Gor syndicate.

Nestled in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley, hugging the U.S. border, Cultus Lake is surrounded by towering rainforest pines—a postcard image of Canada’s serene beauty. Shaped by the last Ice Age, the south shore’s cavernous ridges form the Columbia Valley, which snakes into Washington State—sparsely populated, with no official border crossing, and peopled mostly by large ranch owners. But the pristine corridor conceals deadly secrets with geopolitical consequences.

According to multiple Canadian intelligence experts, significant Columbia Valley properties have been quietly seized as strategic high ground by associates of the notorious Sam Gor narco syndicate, operating in tandem with agents of the Chinese state’s security and foreign influence apparatus.

Experts describe what amounts to a special zone of Chinese crime and influence activities—tied clandestinely to Beijing in function, if not officially—a secure enclave where key properties have been tied to covert cross-border helicopter operations.

Many of the properties of concern are large-acreage farms with cannabis licenses dating back decades—once controlled by B.C. biker gangs, but quietly consolidated since the early 2000s under the influence of figures linked to the Sam Gor syndicate. The networks tied to these estates, sources say, not only profit from cannabis and sophisticated money laundering brokerages that transfer illicit proceeds—ultimately benefiting the Chinese state—but are also linked to Beijing’s so-called “CCP police station” activities, and numerous significant investigations into fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, and Chinese precursor imports.

According to one source familiar with U.S. government investigations in British Columbia, one Columbia Valley property stands out with exceptional urgency. Spanning roughly 30 acres and situated steps from the U.S. border, the estate has triggered alarms among The Bureau’s national security sources—not only due to its strategic location, but because of the individuals connected to it.

Chief among them: Sam Gor himself, the syndicate’s elusive boss, a Chinese Canadian named Tse Chi Lop. Of equal or greater concern: a senior Chinese security and intelligence figure with ties to Sam Gor’s upper command, and individuals associated with Chinese mining and chemical interests and Beijing’s United Front Work Department.

According to RCMP sources, the site has also been linked to numerous narcotics investigations in Western Canada and cross-border helicopter activity into Washington State—escalating it from regional concern to a geopolitical flashpoint between Ottawa and Washington.

Among other key figures linked to the property: Peter Lap-San Pang, a Toronto-based alleged Sam Gor associate named in a British Columbia civil forfeiture case involving a suspected illegal mansion casino; and Ye Long Yong, a convicted Sam Gor “kingpin” identified in Canadian court files for importing, exporting, and trafficking heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine. During a parole hearing, Ye told officials that “a successful person in Toronto gave” him his drug business.

The parole records noted: “There was a great deal of effort from many police organizations from all around the world, with interpreters in several languages and evidence gathered for a long period of time in order to infiltrate and bring down Mr. YE’s criminal organization.”

Also tied to the property is a United Front–associated “Big Circle Boy” contemporary of Tse Chi Lop, who was named in B.C.’s anti-money laundering inquiry as the superior of Paul King Jin—the notorious boxing gym owner, loan shark, and money laundering suspect at the center of Canada’s largest-ever casino money laundering investigation, E-Pirate.

These are just several of the “many other Sam Gor members” associated with this 30-acre farm on the U.S. border, a source said—individuals who have surfaced repeatedly in B.C.’s highest-profile organized crime investigations over the past two decades, including the E-Pirate case.

Most of the Sam Gor and Chinese state-linked suspects tied to this particular Chilliwack-area border property—with the exception of Tse Chi Lop—remain less publicly known than Paul King Jin, whose notoriety has steadily grown since the Vancouver Sun’s 2017 revelations about the RCMP’s failed E-Pirate probe. Jin later survived a high-profile targeted shooting at Richmond’s Manzo restaurant in 2020—an attack that killed his business partner, Jian Jun Zhu, another Sam Gor leader allegedly behind the Silver International operation. That Richmond-based scheme—now infamous for revealing the “Vancouver Model” of money laundering—is believed to have moved hundreds of millions in drug proceeds through a combination of government-regulated and underground casinos, with links to drug-cash banks embedded in diaspora communities across the Western Hemisphere, including Mexico, South America, and hundreds of Chinese bank accounts.

More recently, The Globe and Mail reported troubling information—verified by The Bureau—that Canadian security officials had clandestinely surveilled Jin and other Chinese businessmen privately meeting with then–Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a Richmond hotel, during the height of the E-Pirate and related Chinese narcotics trafficking investigations in British Columbia.

The U.S. government’s concerns about transnational money laundering suspects tied to this nexus—including individuals connected to Columbia Valley properties and the private meeting with Prime Minister Trudeau—were underscored by a request for RCMP assistance in surveilling several Chinese nationals who, according to one source, arrived in Vancouver on a private jet.

Yet while Jin drew headlines in Canada, Sam Gor leader Tse Chi Lop—who holds Canadian citizenship—operated far more quietly across Vancouver, Toronto, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, mainland China, and the United States prior to his arrest in the Netherlands several years ago. He has long been identified as a top figure in what former U.S. State Department investigator David Asher describes as the “command and control” layer of Chinese Communist Party-linked money laundering in Toronto and Vancouver, facilitating the financial operations of Mexican, Latin American, and Chinese cartels across the Western Hemisphere.

One of the key figures associated by Canadian intelligence with the 30-acre Columbia Valley farm, Ye Long Yong, is also little known outside elite international law enforcement circles. But his role in Sam Gor’s transnational operations from Vancouver was extremely significant, an intelligence source said. Filings from his parole hearings underscore this, stating: “Mr. YE operated his criminal organization for years prior to his arrest. He demonstrated his ability to conceal his illegal activities from the authorities for many years.”

Pointing to yet another high-profile property near Cultus Lake, a different source said: “There’s another very, very significant Asian organized crime woman—she had a heavy influence out in that area, to do with cannabis. And she apparently had a lot of higher-level Chinese government connections.”

Another source, familiar with a federal investigation involving an organized crime figure flying a helicopter from the Cultus Lake region into U.S. territory, emphasized long-standing frustrations between allied agencies. “With the choppers and this area around Cultus Lake, I don’t think the Border Integrity team at Federal Serious and Organized Crime has ever truly continued paying attention,” the source said. “That’s why DEA and others are so pissed with the RCMP—not truly following up, not looking at the details. That corridor has been known for years.”

For Canadian intelligence veterans watching the pattern, the explanation points to more than simple organized crime. “This is for years to come,” one source said. “You set things in place in environments you can monitor, inside and out. Thinking like special forces—you pick the high ground, the environment where you can survey everything around you to maintain the integrity and safety of your product. That’s why the corridor is so special to organized crime. You can do that there.”

While these properties—and the alleged helicopter missions they support into the United States—offer a visceral glimpse of the threat posed by Chinese transnational networks engaged in poly-narcotics trafficking and money laundering, the deeper, state-linked financial architecture behind them is best illustrated by the RCMP’s startling findings. Investigators uncovered a global laundering network rooted in Vancouver-area brokerage houses, discreetly embedded in residential neighborhoods. These firms are tied to large-acreage land acquisitions across British Columbia used to cultivate cannabis for Asian organized crime.

Beneath the surface, authorities believe these operations fuel a broader system of poly-drug laundering, narcotics transshipment to other nations concealed within Canadian consumer exports, and coordination with Beijing’s foreign influence apparatus.

The Bureau will report next in this series on a groundbreaking investigation into the United Front brokerage system—an apparatus that facilitated narcotics trafficking from British Columbia into New York City and laundered drug proceeds from the United States back to Sam Gor and United Front networks in Vancouver.

There is mounting evidence that this same system—leveraging “legal” cannabis operations and money laundering brokerages tied to crime figures associated with Chinese consulate diplomats—is now suspected of operating not only in British Columbia but also in Ontario, with transnational reach into multiple U.S. states, including Maine.

Yet only fragments of evidence in official Canadian files hint at the “interoperability” between Chinese narco networks and the United Front Work Department, including its political influence arms.

British Columbia and Ontario have emerged as key battlegrounds where Chinese interference and triad-linked organized crime networks have deeply penetrated society. According to Canadian and U.S. experts who spoke with The Bureau, this includes the integration of the Sam Gor syndicate with Beijing’s intelligence and foreign influence apparatus, operating under the umbrella of the United Front Work Department.

Due to the sensitivity of the matter, the only expert identified in interviews is David Asher, who stated that the U.S. government views the United Front as the envelope surrounding China’s underground banking and financial networks—the same networks believed to have infiltrated TD Bank in Toronto.

Multiple Canadian police sources across British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario confirmed that Chinese diplomats have been observed meeting with senior figures in Asian Organized Crime, including actors tied to the 30-acre “farm” property on the U.S. border near Cultus Lake.

The only known record pointing to official Canadian acknowledgment of these networks was first obtained by Global News in its reporting on Beijing’s Fox Hunt operations. The document—drafted at the request of B.C.’s Solicitor General in 2023—prompted the RCMP to prepare a classified briefing for Premier David Eby’s government. The version released under Freedom of Information legislation was completely redacted and titled: “The People’s Republic of China: Foreign Actor Influence Undertaken by the Chinese Communist Party / United Front Work Department & Interoperability with Transnational Organized Crime.”

Editor’s note: Come back to read The Bureau’s exclusive, paywalled investigation into United Front brokerage houses and illicit grow-ops—operations powered by exploited illegal immigrants.

  By Stewart Muir

Canada has a rare window to join the big leagues of LNG exporters—Qatar, Australia, and the United States are not waiting around, and neither should we.

I sometimes catch myself staring out over the waters of British Columbia’s coastline — so calm, so vast, so brimming with unspoken opportunity — and I can’t help but wonder how anyone could fail to notice the promise that Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) represents for our nation’s future. This country sits atop some of the largest gas reserves on Earth, and we have two coasts eager to connect our product to global markets.

I’m a quietly enthusiastic type by nature, and I don’t often indulge in the “I-told-you-so” routine, but whenever I encounter someone who just hasn’t cottoned on to the excitement around LNG, I feel compelled to stage a gentle intervention.

In my day-to-day role as CEO of Resource Works, I work with communities from Fort St. John to Kitimat, and beyond. Let me assure you, if you want to see Canadians at work, proud of their craft, and eyeing a brighter future, you’ll find them along the pipeline routes and port terminals that are part of our budding LNG industry. And they’re just as commonly found in Vancouver, Victoria and the other cities, just harder to spot with no blue coveralls.

I’ve been following the natural gas story in British Columbia for more than a quarter of a century, going back to my days in the media field. As an editor at The Vancouver Sun, I created the paper’s first-ever energy beat after we noticed something big was stirring in the North East gas fields. It turned out to be an industry animated by regulatory innovation, rich geology, ambitious investors, and some of the most capable people you’ll ever meet.

When talk of LNG exports began to stir in 2011, I dove in with both feet. Over the past 15 years, I’ve followed the LNG file across Canada, around the world, and deep into the heart of British Columbia.

Along the way, I’ve met First Nations chiefs who proudly showed me the schools and businesses they built through new partnerships. I’ve also sat down with those who remain skeptical and had honest, sometimes searching conversations. I’ve learned something from all of them. This is an industry that, at its best, brings people together to solve problems, create opportunity, and build a future worth caring about.

Why am I still so enthused after all these years? LNG is not a flash in the pan, for starters. Through cyclical ups and downs—natural phenomena in any commodity game—international forecasts consistently show that LNG demand won’t be evaporating tomorrow or, quite likely, for several tomorrows yet. The International Energy Agency, the Canada Energy Regulator, and even the U.S. Energy Information Administration all point to steady growth in global LNG trade.

On top of that, if you follow the money, you’ll see billions of dollars flowing into new regasification terminals and record orders for LNG carriers. I may be old-fashioned, but I’ve always found that when so many investors plunk down their capital in one place, it’s seldom a fluke. The world has more than 700 LNG ships plying the seas these days, and hundreds more under construction. That’s not a small bit of confidence.

And let’s talk local: from where I sit, Canada’s jobs outlook tied to LNG looks like a real tonic for communities seeking new opportunities. Construction alone can employ entire regions. Then come the careers that last decades—plant operators, engineers, port and shipping managers, the works. It’s the sort of diversified prosperity that a resource economy yearns for.

We’ve even seen First Nations communities take equity stakes in major LNG projects, forging new partnerships that benefit everyone involved. That’s the model of inclusive economic development that Canadians like to talk about. It’s called walking the walk.

Those voices of skepticism — bless their hearts — sometimes say, “But what about price volatility? The commodity cycles? Are we sure this is sustainable?” Truthfully, no commodity is immune to upswings and downswings. But open a newspaper — digitally or in paper form, your choice— and you’ll find that countries all over the world are expanding their LNG-import infrastructure. Many of them, especially in Asia and Europe, see Canada as a steady, well-regulated, and (importantly) speedy supplier.

Yes, “speedy” might be an odd descriptor for us easygoing Canadians, but let’s not overlook that a West Coast port is only about eight or nine sailing days from major Asian markets, versus more than 20 from the U.S. Gulf Coast. You’d think we’d have lines of ships lined up right now, just for that advantage.

There’s another subtlety that some folks overlook. Right now, much of our gas still flows to the United States, often at discounted prices, only to be converted into LNG down there and sold globally at a premium. If that doesn’t make you shake your head in wonder, I’m not sure what will. Canadians have every reason to want to keep some of that up-chain value right here at home, funneling more of that revenue into local jobs and public coffers. That’s exactly the sort of well-to-customer supply chain we’re poised to build.

And if you’re still not impressed, consider the big jolt to GDP whenever a massive energy project crosses the finish line. Look no further than the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion: once it was substantially complete last year, the national GDP got a measurable jolt. It’s extremely rare that a single anything shows up that way. Now, with the first shipment of Canadian LNG preparing to leave Kitimat in the coming weeks, we can expect a repeat performance. It’s the real economic equivalent of an encore, if you will. And who doesn’t love an encore that boosts paycheques and government revenues?

Canadians may be known worldwide for politeness and hockey, but let’s not forget that boldness is also in our national DNA. Building a robust LNG sector that ties Western and Eastern Canada to major global markets is about as bold an economic strategy as we could pursue right now. Some might call it visionary, others might say it’s just common sense in a world that still demands substantial amounts of energy. Either way, Canada has a rare window to join the big leagues of LNG exporters—Qatar, Australia, and the United States are not waiting around, and neither should we.

At the end of the day, seeing Canadians capture more of the value from our natural resources rather than shipping it across the border at a discount is, for me, both pragmatic and patriotic. It’s the kind of deal that makes you wonder why anyone would hesitate. Perhaps that hesitation is just a bump in the road of public discourse—something we can gently, politely, and persistently overcome.

I, for one, am excited for the first shipment of LNG out of Canada’s West Coast, due any week now. A top executive with the project once whispered to me that the maiden cargo would be worth $100 million, but lately I’m hearing a single shipload is now probably worth double that.

So yes, I’m looking forward to the day when it’s not just a handful of tankers leaving our ports, but a regular fleet serving global customers. It will lift up the whole country, just as it has contributed to America’s tearaway economy in recent years and elevated Qatar from desert outpost to World Cup host nation.

Soon, maybe all the doubters will have recognized the obvious — and joined the rest of us on the bandwagon with front-row seats to Canada’s LNG future. Sure, I’m biased, but only because the facts keep reinforcing that this sector is poised to do a world of good for Canadians from coast to coast.