Police in Canada, the United States and Europe say they have unravelled several Indian crime syndicates allegedly responsible for drug running, extortions, kidnappings, murders and the assassination of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia.
The U.S. Justice Department announced on Tuesday the arrests of 24 suspects around the world, three of them in Canada, in connection with offences by India-based organized crime groups, including Nijjar’s high-profile murder in Surrey in June 2023.
Sikh activist Moninder Singh said the international crackdown on the crime groups is a win for public safety, but the extent of the Indian government’s involvement with transnational criminal proxies shouldn’t be understated.
Singh, a spokesperson for Sikh Federation Canada, said he watched as the U.S. Justice Department announced the arrests and said it was “very much a positive” development.
Singh, like Nijjar before him, has been warned by Canadian law enforcement on multiple occasions that he is a target for assassination in connection with his Sikh separatist activism.
He said the revelations detailed by U.S. law enforcement are likely the “tip of the iceberg.”
“I think there’s more to come,” Singh said. “It sends a clear message that there is law enforcement and intelligence-sharing going on between countries that are dismantling actively these organizations. So, that’s very much a positive.”
Lawrence Bishnoi, a gangster who is in prison in India, and his alleged lieutenant Satinderjeet Singh, also known as Goldy Brar, are now charged with ordering Nijjar’s June 2023 assassination outside a Surrey, B.C., gurdwara.
The indictment against a total of 37 suspects says such high-profile crimes were used to terrorize and extort Indian community members.
It says that in November 2023 Bishnoi claimed responsibility for a separate shooting that occurred at the Vancouver home of a prominent Indian actor and singer, warning in Punjabi in a Facebook post that “no one can save you from us.”
Canada’s Justice Minister Sean Fraser said during an unrelated news conference in Surrey, B.C., on Tuesday, that he was extremely grateful for the extraordinary police work involved.
He said the arrests would make a significant difference.
“What we expect to see as a result of today is a changed experience for Canadians in communities when it comes to the kinds of crimes that these criminal organizations have been perpetuating. The magnitude of today’s news cannot be overstated.”
Members of South Asian business community across Canada have been targeted by extortions in the last few years.
In Surrey where dozens of homes and businesses have been shot at, the mayor said it has “felt like the city has been under siege for some time.”
Mayor Brenda Locke said at the same news conference that the assignation of Nijjar was “incredibly difficult” for the entire city.
“It left people in extraordinary fear,” she said.
Surrey Police say there have been 131 reports of extortion this year, 20 related shots fired and two arsons.
Singh said activists like him who advocate for the separate Sikh state of Khalistan are “constantly going to be at risk” for speaking out.
“The community in general I think feels the same way,” he said. “We’re looking at India almost, I would say, as a 100-head demon at the end of the day, and Bishnoi is just one of those heads.”
The U.S. Justice Department said in a news release Tuesday that as part of “Operation Hard Ball” law enforcement had seized approximately 1,000 kilograms of cocaine and a dozen firearms.
It said the Bishnoi gang funded its activities through drug trafficking, and in November 2024, Bishnoi and Brar oversaw the transportation of 49 kilograms of cocaine that was intercepted in California and was intended to be sent to Canada.
Eleven people were meanwhile charged in relation to an operation that allegedly smuggled hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine each week from the U.S. into Canada.
Ravinder Singh Dhanda, of Vancouver, Jaskarn Baghr of Surrey and Gurtej Singh Smagh, of Creston, B.C., plus eight other suspects, face eight charges over that alleged operation.
The indictment involving Smagh alleges he gathered information about the “timing and location of border inspections” from a Canadian Border Services Agency employee to facilitate cross-border cocaine and methamphetamine smuggling.
The agency said in an email that it wouldn’t comment “given that there is an ongoing police investigation.”
The justice department said 17 members of a third crime group, operated by another imprisoned gangster in India, Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, were also charged.
RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme told a news conference in Los Angeles that the investigation had “dismantled the leadership of three criminal organizations that inflicted pain and cruelty on people, victims around the globe.”
“Lawrence Bishnoi, Ravinder Dhanda, Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, (are) some of the most cruel and wide-reaching criminals whose crimes range from kidnapping to extortion, to murder, to shootings, to arson, to drug trafficking, and many others,” he said.
In addition to those arrested or who are already behind bars, police around the world are looking for 10 fugitives, seven in the United States, two in India, and one in Europe.
Patrick Grandy, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said that the 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.”
First assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said that law enforcement in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia “are determined to target and dismantle these criminal organizations wherever they operate.”
“There is no safe harbour for these thugs,” he added.
In May 2024, four Indian nationals were charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder in relation to Nijjar’s killing, which triggered a diplomatic uproar.
The case is now before the B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster.
Nijjar was a supporter of an independent Sikh state known as Khalistan, and his followers have maintained that the Indian government was involved in the death.
In September 2023, then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the stunning announcement in the House of Commons that there was credible intelligence linking India’s government to the killing, and the government last year designated the Bishnoi group as a terrorist entity.
Bishnoi’s indictment identifies Nijjar by the initials H. S. N., while also describing the exact date of his killing and the known circumstances.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 7, 2026.
By Darryl Greer | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
