The India-based gang behind Canada’s extortion disaster despatched a letter to a B.C. police station final yr boasting that it had 1,000 foot troopers prepared to hold out shootings, a police officer revealed on Thursday.
Testifying at a deportation listening to, the extortion investigator described the letter from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang that was delivered to a police station in Abbotsford, B.C., on Aug. 13, 2025.
“Police really acquired a letter addressed from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang that was despatched to a police station,” Const. Kevin St. Louis informed the Immigration and Refugee Board.
“This particular letter outlined primarily their felony group, the place they talked about having upwards of 1,000 people which are prepared to hold out these shootings as part of the group,” he stated.
“It additionally alludes to how each enterprise must pay their tax, which I believe clearly demonstrates the financial achieve that this group is seeking to acquire on account of these extortions.”
The Abbotsford Police Division confirmed the letter.
“Particulars of this letter have been shared with our regulation enforcement companions engaged in combating the extortion disaster throughout Canada,” Sgt. Paul Walker informed World Information.
“Detectives working in our inside AbbyPD extortion process drive (Operation Neighborhood Defend) started to research the origin of this letter and the contents spoken about inside,” he added.
“I’m not able to remark additional on any of the small print contained throughout the letter or investigative steps taken since.”
The letter emerged at a deportation listening to for an alleged member of an Edmonton-based extortion gang linked to violence in three provinces.
Showing as a witness, St. Louis gave a uncommon briefing on the Bishnoi crime group, which was positioned on Canada’s record of designated terrorist teams final September.
The Edmonton Police Service detective is a member of Undertaking Al-Extortion, which is investigating organized crime focusing on members of Alberta’s South Asian group.
Headed by Lawrence Bishnoi, who operates out of the Indian jail the place he has been held since 2015, the crime group has set off against the law wave focusing on South Asian Canadians.
To extort cash from its victims, the Bishnoi gang depends on Indian nationals in Canada who’re paid “small” quantities to conduct shootings however are additionally in search of a way of belonging, the detective testified.
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“I believe lots of them take a look at it as form of being part of a corporation or a bunch,” he informed the Immigration and Refugee Board, including “lots of them are being focused at faculties.”
“Each person who we’ve recognized throughout this investigation is a brief international employee or on a scholar visa and comparatively new to Canada.”
“It sounds form of humorous to say however what we frequently see with felony organizations and gangs is that it form of offers you that feeling of being concerned and sense of group once you’re with this particular group,” St. Louis stated.
The extortion gangs contact South Asian enterprise homeowners and people to demand massive sums of cash. If the victims don’t pay, their properties and companies are sprayed with gunfire, the officer stated.
The calls for for cash are at all times revamped WhatsApp, usually referencing Lawrence Bishnoi or his one-time right-hand man Goldy Brar, he stated.
However a lot of the calls come from one other Bishnoi member named Jora Sidhu.
“The one constant identify really making the extortions was Mr. Jora Sidhu,” St. Louis stated. “We consider that Mr. Jora Sidhu was really not in Canada whereas making these calls for through WhatsApp.”
“That being stated, we consider he was the first particular person who would care for communications for this extortions,” the officer testified, including the RCMP had recognized him by means of voice-matching.
The Bishnoi group fractured final fall as a result of a falling out between its India-based namesake and Brar, his Canadian lieutenant. After that, the group’s techniques modified, he added.
Following the rift, gang members started capturing at properties and companies with out first contacting the homeowners to demand cash, which he stated mirrored a level of “disorganization.”
“I believe one of many largest modifications that we noticed was a change within the basic modus operandi of those teams, and the way they carried out these acts,” he stated.
Copycat teams have additionally emerged, capitalizing on the concern of extortion gangs, he stated. However whereas they name-drop the Bishnoi gang and its leaders, they don’t conduct shootings, St. Louis stated.
The officer additionally described the challenges confronted by investigators, which embody the usage of encrypted messaging purposes with worldwide cellphone numbers.
The gangs additionally transfer firearms between provinces, making them “virtually unimaginable” to hint. In a single case, a gun was utilized in extortion shootings in two provinces inside a 24-hour interval, he stated.
“The tempo at which these firearms are being moved between totally different provinces made it very tough to find and seize many of those firearms,” the police detective stated.
The testimony got here on the deportation listening to of Jashandeep Singh, an alleged member of an extortion gang that has been linked to shootings in Alberta, B.C. and Ontario.
A video seized by police confirmed Singh aiming a gun on the head of one other man, St. Louis stated. The identical firearm was linked to an extortion capturing in Surrey, B.C.
Singh appeared at his digital deportation listening to from what regarded like a bed room, with a set of stuffed animals behind him.
The case is the Canada Border Companies Company’s newest try to sort out the extortion disaster in Canadian cities by expelling these concerned.
Provinces with massive Canadian-Sikh populations have been worst-hit, notably B.C., Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario.
On Monday, Peel police introduced the arrests of 17 suspected members of a gang referred to as For Brothers that was extorting South Asian enterprise homeowners.
However deportations have change into the primary software towards the extortion teams, since most members are usually not Canadians.
As of Could 7, the CSA had opened 446 investigations into extortion suspects and issued 118 elimination orders, whereas 55 had already been deported.
The majority of the circumstances, 188, have been within the Toronto area, adopted by B.C. with 132 and the Prairies, the place 126 investigations had been launched.
“When police establish people who could also be in violation of the Immigration and Refugee Safety Act, they notify the CBSA, which conducts immigration investigations that may result in enforcement actions, together with elimination from Canada,” the CBSA stated.
An inside RCMP report stated the Bishnoi group additionally engages in murder-for-hire in Canada, and has been “performing on behalf of the Indian authorities.”
The RCMP believes the Bishnoi gang was employed by India to assassinate B.C. Sikh chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023 in an alleged act of transnational repression.
The Indian authorities allegedly focused Nijjar as a result of he was a number one activist within the Khalistan motion that seeks independence for India’s Punjab.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authorities was implicated in a second tried assassination of a Canadian Khalistan activist who resides in New York.
Greater than a dozen different Canadians, most of them Khalistan motion activists, have been warned by police that their lives are at risk.
India denies any involvement, and as just lately as this week its prime envoy in Ottawa informed the Globe and Mail that Canada’s nationwide safety businesses had been “compromised.”
Requested if India’s Excessive Commissioner could be expelled for his remarks, International Minister Anita Anand’s employees didn’t reply.
