Police arrest three suspects in Canada tied to Indian crime wave as part of joint international crackdown

Three of the 24 suspects arrested in connection to three separate Indian crime groups were apprehended in Canada, authorities say. Photo by Vincent McDermott/Postmedia

Article content

Canadian, U.S. and European authorities have arrested 24 suspects connected to three separate Indian crime groups, part of a widening crackdown on a transnational crime wave that has caused a ripple of murders, arsons and extortions across several major Canadian cities.

Article content

Three of the 24 suspects were arrested in Canada, according to statements issued by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Canadian and U.S. authorities allege that many of the suspects are known associates of the Bishnoi gang, a criminal syndicate run by India’s Lawrence Bishnoi, which operates a growing network focused around urban clusters in greater Vancouver, Toronto and Edmonton.

Article content

Article content

Article content

In addition, another 13 suspects were arrested in the U.S. and one in Spain. Seven suspects had already been in custody before police publicized the arrests.

Article content

Article content

U.S. authorities unsealed three indictments on Tuesday against 37 suspects, including three major crime ring bosses based in India. Bishnoi is one, and the other two — Ravinder Dhanda and Jaggu Bhagwanpuria — are also known Indian drug and crime kingpins.

Article content

As part of the joint operation, police say they are also looking for 10 fugitives currently at large in the U.S., India and Europe, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office statement.

Article content

Neither the Department of Justice nor the RCMP directly named the Canadian suspects in its press releases. The RCMP arrested the three suspects in Surrey, West Vancouver and White Rock, B.C., and will now apply to have the trio extradited to the U.S.

Article content

“Together, we disrupted the operations of organized criminals who used murder, cruelty and fear to extort and control people in both Canada and the United States,” RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme said in a statement.

Article content

“Today’s coordinated operation strikes at the heart of three brutal transnational organizations that have terrorized families, exploited communities, and stolen lives through ruthless acts of violence in the U.S. and abroad,” said Patrick Grandy, assistant director in the FBI’s Los Angeles office.

Article content

Article content

Canadian and U.S. authorities have asserted that the Bishnoi gang was the group that carried out the political assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh activist who was gunned down in the parking lot of his Surrey, B.C., temple in 2023. Canadian authorities have since alleged that the Bishnoi gang was contracted by officials on behalf of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government to kill Nijjar as part of its effort to suppress Sikh separatist sentiments.

Article content

Article content

The Bishnoi gang is also allegedly connected to a string of extortions, particularly in Surrey, B.C., and Brampton, Ont., targeting Sikhs and other South Asians living in Canada. Under such schemes, the Bishnoi gang and other enterprises demand payment from select diaspora small business owners in the form of cash, crypto or money transfers, according to a report by the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC). Gang members then threaten those families or business owners who don’t pay, often by shooting at their homes and setting their vehicles on fire, according to police reports and court hearings later reported by media.

Article content

Under the joint arrests unveiled on Tuesday — called “Operation Hard Ball,” according to U.S. authorities — police forces seized 1,000 kilograms of cocaine, US$40,000 in cash and a dozen firearms.

Article content

Article content