Three sweeping indictments unsealed Tuesday by U.S. prosecutors allege that India-based organized crime networks orchestrated political killings, extortion schemes and large-scale drug trafficking across Canada, the United States and Europe.
One indictment accuses alleged crime boss Lawrence Bishnoi and his longtime associate Satinderjeet Singh, also known as Goldy Brar, of ordering the 2023 killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, B.C.
U.S. authorities said Tuesday that 24 suspects had been arrested in Canada, the United States and Europe as part of Operation Hard Ball, a two-year investigation involving the FBI, RCMP and police agencies in several countries.
Prosecutors charged 37 people in the three indictments, alleging that members of the groups engaged in crimes ranging from murder-for-hire and kidnapping to extortion and the trafficking of cocaine, methamphetamine and firearms.
“These are violent gangster thugs and they did bad things,” said Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California. “They did violent things and they stole drugs from other gangsters.… Nobody was off limits for them.”
Dozens charged with murder, extortion and more in crackdown on India-based organized crime groups
Two dozen arrested in India-based organized crime gang crackdown, officials say
The first indictment accuses Bishnoi and Brar of ordering Nijjar’s killing in June 2023.
Nijjar’s death sparked a diplomatic crisis after then-prime minister Justin Trudeau said Canadian intelligence linked agents of the Indian government to the killing. India has repeatedly denied the allegation.
Bishnoi is in jail in India, but police continue to search for Brar, who was not among those arrested this week. The indictment alleges Bishnoi directed a sprawling criminal organization from jail using smuggled cellphones, funnelling orders to a network of thousands of members in India, Canada, the U.S., Europe and Australia.
Many of the gang’s recruits are vulnerable young people in India, including minors, who are then sent to countries such as Canada and the U.S. on student and temporary work visas to carry out criminal operations.
The documents trace the 33-year-old Bishnoi’s rise to power to his time as a university student in India in the early 2010s.
“Defendent Bishnoi soon thereafter traded campus politics for criminal activity, and refashioned his associates and followers into a criminal organization,” the indictment says.
Bishnoi was arrested in India in 2015 but has continued to build a transnational criminal organization from behind bars, according to the indictment.
CBC has reported extensively on Canada’s extortion crisis linked to the Bishnoi gang. Hearings in criminal and immigration courts have revealed much of the same details contained in the U.S. indictments. During the hearings, gang members said they were hired for as little as $1,000 to shoot at targets’ homes to sow fear.
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Earlier this year, the gang sent a letter to police in Abbotsford, B.C, claiming to have 1,000 foot soldiers in Canada.
The indictment also accuses Bishnoi and Brar of involvement in a shooting at the Vancouver home of a popular Indian actor and singer identified as R.G. in November 2024. Reports from the time match a shooting at the home of Rupinder “Gippy” Grewal.
According to the indictment, Brar contacted a phone number used by R.G. and his manager and demanded money.
“You can ignore my message, you will not be able to ignore the bullets coming your way,” the message read.
Court documents also cite another incident last summer in which the owner of an immigration company in Surrey, B.C., was allegedly contacted by Brar and told: “It’s your turn to file your taxes,” and “get $500,000 ready, if you ignore me then I’m happy to kill you.”
A month later, Brar allegedly told him, “my promise to you is that you will not die of natural causes, I promise that you will also die by a bullet, understood … you will die because of your dog-like tongue,” and “your family will suffer.”
The indictment also cites multiple threats and a demand for $500,000 from a resident of Brampton, Ont. Brampton is among several cities, including Edmonton, that have seen a wave of extortions, shootings and arsons connected to the Bishnoi gang and rival groups in recent years.
Immigration proceedings have revealed that Bishnoi foot soldiers moved between provinces, carrying out attacks, transporting weapons and engaging in widespread auto fraud.
A second indictment targets the rival group Jaggu Bhagwanpuria. Prosecutors allege it operated a similar network spanning Canada, the U.S. and Europe, with Bhagwanpuria directing it from prison and overseeing shipments of cocaine and methamphetamine to Canada.
The third indictment focuses on an alleged drug-trafficking network led by Canadian Ravinder Singh Dhanda, who was among three people arrested in Vancouver on Tuesday, according to RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme. Duheme also attended the news conference in Los Angeles.
“The world has gotten smaller. These groups operate transnationally and so must law enforcement,” Duheme said.
He said the RCMP worked alongside the FBI for two years, embedding investigators in a joint operation that also involved police in Mexico, France and Spain.
Duheme described the accused as “some of the most cruel and wide-reaching criminals.”
Dhanda’s group allegedly transported hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine each week from Southern California into Canada using commercial transport trucks.
According to the documents, members of the network met near the Peace Arch border crossing between Surrey, B.C., and Washington state to co-ordinate smuggling operations.
The indictment alleges one defendant obtained information about border inspections from someone working for the Canada Border Services Agency. It is unclear whether that person has been charged.
Investigators seized more than 1,000 kilograms of narcotics and dozens of firearms during the investigation, officials said Tuesday.
