Cops say gambler in town to allegedly launder money

An Australian highstakes gambler, who was ordered deported after an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing Tuesday, was in B.C. allegedly to launder money, the RCMP say.

On Wednesday, the Mounties said a search warrant executed for alleged international money-launderer Dan Bai Shun Jin’s River Rock Casino hotel room provided investigators with documents of Jin’s involvement in money laundering and a recent money-movement scheme.

Police said that scheme involved a female money courier who picked up $25,000 from an unidentified man in a parking lot in Las Vegas and was to deliver it to Jin, an Australian citizen who is originally from China.

Jin, 55, came to the attention of B.C. authorities when the woman was stopped with the money at the Vancouver airport.

Jin was arrested May 25 at the River Rock Casino while playing baccarat and had chips valued at $75,000 and some cash.

As also reported earlier this week by Postmedia, the deportation hearing found that Jin wasn’t admissible to be in Canada because he had outstanding warrants for passing about $1.4 million in bad cheques at several casinos in Las Vegas dating to 2014.

Canadian authorities were also concerned about multiple investigations in several countries, including Australia and the U.S. According to Australian court documents, Jin is likely to be involved in large-scale, illegal, casino-based money laundering in Australia, the U.S., Macau and Singapore.

Part of the Australian probe revolves around Jin gambling about $850 million at a casino in Melbourne between 2005 and 2013.