One of Canada’s largest newspapers, La Presse, reports that Albanian businessman Luftar Hysa is suspected of using a casino on the Kahnawake Mohawk Reservation to launder money for the Mexican Sinaloa cartel. International investigations show that Hysa and his family are suspected of links to international criminal activities, transferring millions of dollars through companies and restaurants in Canada, Albania, Mexico and other countries. Court documents and financial reports raise suspicions that Hysa and his Albanian associates are involved in money laundering through the casino and gambling industries.
Full article from La Presse
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) suspect that the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the world, is using a casino in Kahnawake, south of Montreal, to launder dirty money. According to information from La Presse, law enforcement agencies from three countries are investigating a suspected cartel money launderer who is said to have infiltrated the gambling industry on the Mohawk reservation.
The casino’s advertising invites: “It’s time to win at the Magic Palace.” The casino is located on Route 132, in the heart of Kahnawake, just minutes from Montreal, and offers services and facilities that no other casino can match: large illuminated signs visible from afar, ample free parking, a luxurious restaurant, free drinks for players, security guards and dedicated staff.
Although Loto-Québec often emphasizes that the private gaming industry in the indigenous territories is illegal, the clientele remains large and permanent. During a visit by La Presse, the place was filled with numerous players from different cities in the area, who tried their luck on one of the 400 state-of-the-art video lottery machines, almost as many as in other large casinos such as Mont-Tremblant. A special detail: some of the Magic Palace machines have instructions in Spanish. Few people know that the casino has strong ties to Mexico through an Albanian casino businessman, Luftar Hysa, who is based on the island of Montreal.
Alliance with “El Mayo”
Luftar Hysa, an Albanian businessman, was mentioned in the media in Mexico in September 2022 for his alleged links to organized crime. Two competing newspapers, El Universal and Milenio, cited sources in Mexico's federal security services who said Hysa had struck a deal to launder money for the Sinaloa cartel.
El Universal reported that according to government intelligence services, the agreement was reached between the Hysa family and Ismael Zambada Garcia, known as "El Mayo", the head of a faction of the cartel, with the aim of returning drug trafficking profits to the legal economy through real estate or tourism projects.
“In particular, they identified that El Mayo had established contacts with the Luftar brothers, Arben, Fatos and Ramiz Hysa, an Albanian criminal group that is targeted by financial authorities due to the considerable illegal economic activity registered in the tourism and casino sectors, both in Mexico and Albania,” the newspaper wrote.
"Currently, according to federal authorities, Albanians are conducting an operation on behalf of the Sinaloa cartel, aiming to transfer millions of dollars to their country through covert companies," the report continued.
The Milenio newspaper cited sources from the Mexican government's security cabinet, who reached the same conclusion and added that part of the laundering was done through casinos located in northern Mexico.
In statements to several Mexican and Albanian media outlets, Hysa and his representatives have strongly denied any connection to cartels or drug money.
Delicate investigation
However, according to court documents obtained by La Presse, the GRC also believes that Luftar Hysa recycles Mexican trafficking money and uses a casino in Kahnawake for this purpose.
Everything indicates that Luftar Ali HYSA infiltrated the Kahnawake Indian Reservation to facilitate money laundering activities on behalf of the Mexican Sinaloa cartel, as well as for his own personal gain, a police investigator says in an affidavit filed in a Montreal court.
The investigator explains that the GRC's national criminal intelligence team considers Hysa to be an international money launderer based in Quebec. She points out that the businessman frequently travels between Montreal, Mexico and Europe.
Police also reveal that Albanian authorities have requested assistance from Canadian police to investigate Hysa, noting that he is "suspected of being part of a criminal group with money laundering activities in Mexico, Canada, Panama, Poland and Albania."
The group owns 30 casinos and restaurants in Mexico, Canada, Belize and Poland to facilitate its activities, the investigator explains in the summary of the Albanian request.
Due to the tense historical context, it has been difficult for Canadian police to intervene in Mohawk territory since the Oka crisis in 1990. But the documents show that the GRC has been operating on the outskirts to get closer to the target: after reading the complaint filed in court by investigators, a justice of the peace ordered CIBC and Desjardins banks to provide banking documents of Hysa and several of his companies.
When asked about the matter Monday, Dwayne Zacharie, chief of the Peacekeepers, Kahnawake police, stressed that his agents have been valuable collaborators in several cases for off-reserve police services.
"The Kahnawake Peacekeepers work with various police organizations and we collaborate with any agency that needs our expertise," he said without providing further details.
Officially, Luftar Hysa is not listed as the public owner of Magic Palace, but he stated in an interview for Albanian television that he is the owner of the Mirela restaurant, inside the casino, whose name was taken from his wife.
When Poker Palace, the predecessor to Magic Palace, renovated the premises and installed professional equipment for the restaurant in 2017, the invoices were made out to Poker Palace of Kahnawake, but the $220,000 payment came from Hysa, documents filed in Superior Court in a contractual dispute show.
On Google, a review from a satisfied customer about Magic Palace includes a photo of Hysa smiling with plates in hand. The GRC also says it observed him at the location during its investigation.
Three negative referendums
The opening of the Magic Palace has been controversial in Kahnawake. The reserve population has voted against the opening of casinos three times in referendums over the years. However, the casino was founded thanks to a pilot project for video lotteries, which will be reviewed by the band council at a later date (the council told La Presse that it does not want to discuss the issue publicly, as it is an internal debate within the community).
In an interview with La Presse Canadienne, a council representative said last year that the vast majority of patrons come from off-reserve. The pilot project would see the casino pay taxes to the band council. Magic Palace also made an additional $1 million donation to the community last year for the construction of a new cultural centre.
Magic Palace's activities are supervised by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, which imposes strict controls to limit any attempts at financial fraud: upon entry, each customer must show an identification document with address, provide an active phone number, and have their photo taken for identification.
But in its complaint to the justice of the peace, the GRC mentions that some of the funds passing through the casino appear to be escaping scrutiny. The Financial Operations and Disclosures Analysis Centre of Canada (CANAFE), the federal body that monitors the financial sector, raised a red flag in March 2023 for possible money laundering activities, more specifically from the Kahnawake Indian Reserve in Albania through Luftar Ali Hysa.
A report submitted to the GRC by CANAFE implicated Hysa, his construction company in Albania, Valona Konstruksion, and Mohawk entrepreneur Stanley Myiow, who claims to be the owner of Magic Palace.
The CANAFE report mentions a series of suspicious transactions:
From 2013 to 2019, Hysa received over 209 wire transfers totaling $3.2 million from Mexico, which he immediately transferred via checks or other transfers;
The Mirela restaurant, which Hysa claims to own, has sent $28 million to Albania, Mexico, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Italy in a single year (2019-2020);
Stanley Myiow and the Hysa family's construction company in Albania are mentioned in more than 50 CANAFE suspicious activity reports, for a total value of 28 million Canadian dollars;
Between 2018 and 2020, Myiow sent $1.3 million to the Hysa family's construction company in Albania;
In 2020, Mirela's restaurant conducted a series of suspicious transactions worth $85,000 on behalf of Hysa's wife.
The Pursuit of Hysa
To learn more about Hysa, police pursued him in his Rolls-Royce Cullinan SUV, worth over half a million dollars. According to the GRC complaint, Hysa discovered the pursuit, confronted the pursuing officer and then pursued him himself, turning the situation in his favor.
Based on all this information, the GRC claims in its complaint that there are sufficient reasons to suspect that Luftar Hysa is involved in criminal money laundering. The police force has refused to comment further.
La Presse tried to contact Hysa at one of seven phone numbers registered in his name in Quebec, but received no answer. His son, Fabjon Hysa, listed as vice president of one of the family’s gambling companies, said he could not help. A woman who answered another number said Hysa was out of the country and could not provide an email address.
His two lawyers in Quebec declined to comment after receiving detailed questions. Stanley Myiow also did not respond.
What is the Sinaloa cartel?
The Sinaloa Cartel, named after its region in Mexico, is a group of major exporters of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl and cannabis. Its wars with rivals have claimed thousands of lives. In 2019, its leader Joaquín Guzmán, known as “El Chapo,” was sentenced to life in prison in the United States for drug trafficking and involvement in the murders of 26 people, some of whom were tortured. Although El Chapo has been imprisoned, US authorities consider the organization one of the most powerful drug cartels in the world.
