The India-based gang behind Canada’s extortion crisis sent a letter to a B.C. police station last 12 months boasting that it had 1,000 foot soldiers willing to perform 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’re willing to perform these shootings as an element of the group,” he said.
“It also alludes to how every business must pay their tax, which I feel clearly demonstrated the monetary group that this group is trying to obtain because of this of those 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 analyze the origin of this letter and the contents spoken about inside.
“I’m not able to comment further on any of the main points contained throughout the letter or investigative steps taken since.”
The letter emerged when St. Louis, an Edmonton Police Service detective, appeared as a witness on 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, a world 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 criminal offense wave targeting South Asian Canadians.
To extortion victims, the Bishnoi gang relies on Indian nationals in Canada who’re paid “small” amounts to conduct shootings but are also looking for a way of belonging, the detective testified.
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“I feel a whole lot of them have a look at it as form of being an element of a company or a gaggle,” he told the Immigration and Refugee Board, adding “a whole lot of them are being targeted at schools.”
“Every person that we’ve identified during this investigation is a short lived foreign employee or on a student visa and comparatively recent to Canada,” St. Louis said.
“It sounds form of funny to say but what we regularly see with criminal organizations and gangs is that it form of offer you that feeling of being involved and sense of community while you’re with this specific group.”
The extortion gangs contact South Asian business owners and individuals to demand large sums of cash. If the victims don’t pay, their homes and businesses are targeted with gunfire, the officer said.
The demands for money are all the time revamped WhatsApp, often referencing Lawrence Bishnoi or his right-hand man Goldy Brar, he said, but a lot of the calls come from one other Bishnoi member named Jora Sidhu.
“The one consistent name actually making the extortions was Mr. Jora Sidhu,” St. Louis said. “We imagine that Mr. Jora Sidhu was actually not in Canada while making these demands via WhatsApp.”
“That being said, we imagine he was the first individual who would handle communications for this extortions,” the officer testified, adding the RCMP had identified him through voice-matching.
The Bishnoi group fractured last fall, he said, because of a falling out between its India-based namesake and Brar, his Canadian lieutenant. After that, the group’s tactics modified, 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 level of “disorganization.”
“I feel considered one of the largest changes that we saw was a change in the overall modus operandi of those groups, and the way 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 don’t conduct shootings, St. Louis said.
The officer also described the challenges faced by investigators, which include the usage of encrypted messaging applications and international phone numbers.
The gangs also move firearms between provinces, making them “practically inconceivable” to trace. In a single case, a gun was utilized in extortion shootings in two provinces inside 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 lots of these firearms,” the police detective said.
The testimony got here on 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 try 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 grow to be the essential tool against the extortion groups, since most members should 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 majority of the cases, 188, were within the Toronto region, followed by B.C. with 132 and the Prairies, where 126 investigations had been launched.
“When police discover individuals who could also be in violation of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, they notify the CBSA, which conducts immigration investigations that may result in 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 number one activist within the Khalistan movement that seeks independence for India’s Punjab.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was also implicated within the attempted assassination of one other Canadian Khalistan activist who resides in Recent 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 could be expelled for his remarks, Foreign Minister Anita Anand’s staff didn’t respond.
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca