The India-based gang behind Canada’s extortion crisis sent a letter to a B.C. police station last year boasting that it had 1,000 foot soldiers willing to carry out shootings, a police officer revealed on Thursday.
Testifying at a deportation hearing, 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 actually received a letter addressed from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang that was sent to a police station,” Const. Kevin St. Louis said.
“This specific letter outlined essentially their criminal organization, where they talked about having upwards of 1,000 individuals who are willing to carry out these shootings as a part of the group,” he said.
“It also alludes to how every business needs to pay their tax, which I think clearly demonstrated the monetary group that this group is looking to obtain as a result of these extortions.”
The police detective is a detective with Project Al-Extortion, an investigation into organized crime groups extorting members of Alberta’s South Asian community.
The Abbotsford Police Department confirmed the letter.
“Details of this letter were shared with our law enforcement partners engaged in combating the extortion crisis across Canada,” Sgt. Paul Walker said.
“Detectives working in our internal AbbyPD extortion task force (Operation Community Shield) began to investigate the origin of this letter and the contents spoken about within.
“I’m not in a position to comment further on any of the details contained within the letter or investigative steps taken since.”
The letter emerged when St. Louis, an Edmonton Police Service detective, appeared as a witness at the deportation hearing of an alleged member of an Edmonton-based extortion gang.
During his testimony, the officer gave a rare profile of the Bishnoi gang, an international criminal organization that was added to Canada’s list of designated terrorist groups last September.
The RCMP believes the Bishnoi gang was also hired by the Indian government to assassinate B.C. Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023 in an alleged act of transnational repression.
Headed by Lawrence Bishnoi, who operates out of the Indian prison where he has been held since 2015, the crime group set off a crime wave targeting South Asian Canadians.
To extortion victims, the Bishnoi gang relies on Indian nationals in Canada who are paid “small” amounts to conduct shootings but are also seeking a sense of belonging, the detective testified.
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“I think a lot of them look at it as kind of being a part of an organization or a group,” he told the Immigration and Refugee Board, adding “a lot of them are being targeted at schools.”
“Every individual that we’ve identified during this investigation is a temporary foreign worker or on a student visa and relatively new to Canada,” St. Louis said.
“It sounds kind of funny to say but what we often see with criminal organizations and gangs is that it kind of give you that feeling of being involved and sense of community when you’re with this specific group.”
The extortion gangs contact South Asian business owners and individuals to demand large sums of money. If the victims do not pay, their homes and businesses are targeted with gunfire, the officer said.
The demands for money are always made over WhatsApp, often referencing Lawrence Bishnoi or his right-hand man Goldy Brar, he said, but most of the calls come from another Bishnoi member named Jora Sidhu.
“The one consistent name actually making the extortions was Mr. Jora Sidhu,” St. Louis said. “We believe that Mr. Jora Sidhu was actually not in Canada while making these demands via WhatsApp.”
“That being said, we believe he was the primary individual who would take care of communications for this extortions,” the officer testified, adding the RCMP had identified him through voice-matching.
The Bishnoi group fractured last fall, he said, due to a falling out between its India-based namesake and Brar, his Canadian lieutenant. After that, the group’s tactics changed, he added.
Following the rift, gang members began shooting at homes and businesses without first contacting the owners to demand money, which he said may reflect a degree of “disorganization.”
“I think one of the biggest changes that we saw was a change in the general modus operandi of these groups, and how they carried out these acts,” he said.
Copycat groups have also emerged, capitalizing on the fear of extortion gangs, he said. But while they name-drop the Bishnoi gang and its leaders, they do not conduct shootings, St. Louis said.
The officer also described the challenges faced by investigators, which include the use of encrypted messaging applications and international phone numbers.
The gangs also move firearms between provinces, making them “practically impossible” to trace. In one case, a gun was used in extortion shootings in two provinces within a 24-hour period, he said.
“The pace at which these firearms are being moved between different provinces made it very difficult to locate and seize many of these firearms,” the police detective said.
The testimony came at the deportation hearing of Jashandeep Singh, an alleged member of an Edmonton extortion gang that has been linked to shootings in Alberta, B.C. and Ontario.
The case is the Canada Border Services Agency’s latest attempt to tackle the extortion crisis in Canadian cities by expelling those involved.
Provinces with large Canadian-Sikh populations have been worst-hit, notably B.C., Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario.
On Monday, Peel police announced the arrests of 17 suspected members of a gang called For Brothers that was targeting South Asian business owners.
But deportations have become the main tool against the extortion groups, since most members are not Canadians.
As of May 7, the CSA had opened 446 investigations into extortion suspects and issued 118 removal orders, while 55 had already been deported.
The bulk of the cases, 188, were in the Toronto region, followed by B.C. with 132 and the Prairies, where 126 investigations had been launched.
“When police identify individuals who may be in violation of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, they notify the CBSA, which conducts immigration investigations that can lead to enforcement actions, including removal from Canada,” the CBSA said.
An internal RCMP report said the Bishnoi group also engages in murder-for-hire in Canada, and has been “acting on behalf of the Indian government.”
The Indian government allegedly targeted Hardeep Nijjar because he was a leading activist in the Khalistan movement that seeks independence for India’s Punjab.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was also implicated in the attempted assassination of another Canadian Khalistan activist who resides in New York.
But India denies any involvement, and as recently as this week its top envoy in Ottawa told the Globe and Mail that Canada’s national security agencies had been “compromised.”
Asked if India’s High Commissioner would be expelled for his remarks, Foreign Minister Anita Anand’s staff did not respond.
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
