Extortion, drugs, assassination and transnational Indian crime syndicates: 'Operation Hard Ball' explained

Extortion, drugs, assassination and transnational Indian crime syndicates: 'Operation Hard Ball' explained

Splashy U.S. indictment against Bishnoi gang backed up by details from Canadian deportation hearings

Canadian and U.S. authorities laid out sweeping allegations of racketeering, extortion and murder against a trio of Indian-linked crime syndicates this week.

One of the groups — run from a jail cell in India by gangster Lawrence Bishnoi — is charged in incidents linked to the extortion crisis plaguing communities in Ontario and British Columbia as well as the assassination of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C., in 2023.

FBI Los Angeles assistant director Patrick Grandy took a victory lap alongside RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme, declaring "Operation Hard Ball" a strike "at the heart of three brutal transnational organizations that have terrorized families, exploited communities and stolen lives."

But the splashy indictment raises as many questions as it answers about Bishnoi and the state of his alleged operations on Canadian soil.

CBC News has spent months combing through criminal cases, attending deportation hearings and interviewing victims to get a picture of the gang's sprawling operation and its involvement in everything from threats to auto fraud to cricket fixing.

What is Operation Hard Ball and why is this all coming out now?

Operation Hard Ball is the name of a "law enforcement action" carried out by FBI and RCMP targeting 37 defendants — including Lawrence Bishnoi, the gang leader who has been imprisoned in India since 2015.

Unsealed indictments detail charges against three separate groups: the Bishnoi Organized Crime Group (OCG); a gang run by another imprisoned Indian national, Jaggu Bhagwanpuria; and an alleged drug trafficking operation led by B.C.'s Ravinder Singh Dhanda.

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It's important to note that the indictments do not claim any links between the three groups.

The U.S. Department of Justice's release says the operation is the result of "a years-long federal investigation into Indian crime syndicates."

Who is Lawrence Bishnoi and how does he operate in Canada?

Bishnoi is a former university student leader who developed a network of associates and followers in that capacity.

He soon "traded campus politics for criminal activity, and refashioned his associates and followers into a criminal organization," the indictment reads.

Bishnoi was arrested in 2015 and has been in jail in India ever since. But he has used social media and his network of fanatical supporters to build a global organization.

"Using contraband cellphones and other voice over internet protocol devices smuggled into his jail cell, defendant Bishnoi personally directed political assassinations, murders, shootings, extortions, kidnappings, drug trafficking, human smuggling, and other crimes committed by members and associates of the Bishnoi OCG worldwide," the indictment says.

The indictment says the Bishnoi gang has recruited new members "primarily from vulnerable, disadvantaged populations in India" — particularly Punjab state.

"Recruitment coordinators ... enticed impoverished minors in India to join the enterprise by promising, among other things, money, notoriety, and protection," the indictment reads.

"The Bishnoi OCG sent loyal members to countries outside India, including the United States and Canada, on student visas and foreign worker visas — often containing fraudulent information — to assist the enterprise’s criminal operations in those countries."

This fits entirely with the description of accused gang members in Canadian court cases and Immigration and Refugee Board hearings.

Nearly all the accused Bishnoi foot soldiers in Canada have come from the state of Punjab on student visas and temporary work permits.

The gang purportedly wrote to police in Abbotsford, B.C., directly last summer, claiming to have more than 1,000 foot soldiers in Canada ready to carry out extortions.

At one recent sentencing related to a shooting and arson in Surrey, an accused claimed he and his two accomplices were paid $1,000 each.

In another case, Abjeet Singh Kingra, the gunman who shot 14 bullets into a Bishnoi target's Victoria-area home in 2024, claimed he was paid $4,000. Kingra claimed he did not know he was working for Bishnoi.

This seems like a huge operation for one man. Who else is involved?

The U.S. indictment also charges four other named associates, including Satinderjeet Singh, a notorious figure who is also known as Goldy Brar.

Brar is described as a "childhood friend" of Bishnoi's who oversaw the North American operations of the group at the time of the crimes alleged in the indictment.

The U.S. court documents accuse Brar of personally threatening the director of an immigration consultancy in Surrey last June to demand $500,000.

"My promise to you is that you will not die of natural causes, I promise that you will also die by a bullet, understood," Brar is accused of telling the man.

"You will die because of your dog-like tongue ... your family will suffer."

Beyond the indictment, CBC News has learned from immigration proceedings that Brar, who is still at large, and Bishnoi have allegedly since parted ways and are now leading rival gangs.

The FBI is offering a reward of up to $50,000 US for information leading to Brar's arrest.

Recent immigration and court proceedings in Canada have also pointed a finger at another mid-level associate for the Bishnoi gang implicated in multiple extortion cases in B.C.

Counsel for the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship cited a Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) tactical manual describing an individual named Goldy Dhillon as a "subcontractor" for the Bishnoi gang who claimed responsibility for multiple attacks in Surrey.

Goldy Dhillon also claimed responsibility for a string of shootings last year at Surrey's Kap's Cafe, a business owned by Bollywood celebrity Kapil Sharma.

What is the link to Hardeep Singh Nijjar's assassination? And was the Indian government allegedly involved?

The U.S. court documents claim that Bishnoi and Brar ordered the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside his place of worship in Surrey on June 18, 2023.

Nijjar, president of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey and a key organizer for overseas voting on an independent Sikh state in India, was shot dead in the parking lot of the gurdwara in June 2023.

Then-prime minister Justin Trudeau claimed credible intelligence linked Nijjar's death to Indian government involvement, but India has denied being involved in the case.

Four Indian nationals have since been charged with murder and conspiracy in the case and are currently in custody as pre-trial proceedings play out in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster.

The Bishnoi indictment makes no mention of any role by the Indian state in the killing, but says that four co-conspirators agreed to assist with Nijjar's killing.

The court documents claim Bishnoi provided one of those co-conspirators with a picture of Nijjar along with multiple addresses "to facilitate the assassination."

How do these indictments fit into the bigger extortion crisis in Canada?

RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme said Operation Hard Ball "disrupted the operations of organized criminals who used murder, cruelty and fear to extort and control people in both Canada and the United States."

He also said that the police wouldn't "pause for long to reflect on the work it took to get this job done."

Beyond the U.S. indictments, Canadian criminal courts have seen numerous alleged Bishnoi foot soldiers charged with shootings, arson and extortions.

The vast majority of accused appear to be making their way through Immigration and Refugee Board proceedings, where deportation orders have been issued against some significant players.

At one of those hearings, Edmonton Police Service Const. Kevin St. Louis said suspects have been involved in insurance fraud and false reports about allegedly stolen vehicles that are used to commit crimes before being found burnt on the side of the road.

He said suspects, weapons and vehicles move constantly from province to province. But he said the extortion demands in each jurisdiction are very similar and in some cases appear to originate from the same virtually untraceable international WhatsApp accounts.

"We've seen the same firearm used in occurrences in Ontario, Alberta as well as British Columbia," he said.

"It makes it very challenging. The pace at which these firearms are being moved between different provinces makes it very difficult to seize and locate these firearms."

Earlier this year, CBC News identified two Indian nationals deported for serious criminality who were later identified by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) as proof of expanded efforts to disrupt extortion networks.

Arshdeep Singh, who came to Canada on a student visa in August 2022, was suspected in an arson in Ontario, a shooting in Edmonton, extortion cases in Surrey and auto theft and insurance fraud in B.C.'s Lower Mainland, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

And Sukhnaaz Singh Sandhu, identified as a former leader in a Surrey-based criminal gang of international students called The Ruffians, was accused of engaging in a "high-risk lifestyle" involving "firearms, fraud, stolen vehicles, flight from police and drive-by shooting incidents."

The CBC's the fifth estate has also reported extensively on Bishnoi-linked allegations of corruption in the cricket world, culminating in the daylight shooting of a man who was allegedly a "main handler" for the gang in Surrey in May.

And what about the 3 men arrested in British Columbia?

The three men arrested in British Columbia on Tuesday as part of the Operation Hard Ball investigations are named in a separate indictment involving allegations of drug trafficking.

The indictment claims Ravinder Singh Dhanda allegedly led a "drug distribution network that provided international smuggling services for bulk quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine to drug trafficking organizations in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico."

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The indictment claims that one of them got information from someone from the Canada Border Services Agency "to assist with smuggling cocaine and methamphetamine across the U.S.-Canada border."

The three men are scheduled to appear in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver on Thursday for a bail hearing ahead of extradition proceedings to the United States where authorities say Dhanda could face life in prison if convicted.

Jason Proctor is a reporter in British Columbia for CBC News who has covered the B.C. courts and justice system extensively.