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Extortion cases targeting the South Asian community in B.C. have skyrocketed over the last two years, creating public fear and political and police responses
Published Dec 15, 2025 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 11 minute read
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A bullet hole in the window of Kap’s Cafe in the 8400-block of 120th Street on July 10, 2025. Photo by Nikola Bennett /PNGArticle content
The Abbotsford mechanic had not received a single call or message threatening violence or demanding money before his business was sprayed with bullets about 2:40 a.m. Nov. 12.
A neighbour saw the damaged window about 6:30 that morning and called police. The mechanic was awakened a short time later by calls and messages from friends about the shooting.
“Something happened at your shop,” they told him.
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In an interview with Postmedia, the mechanic described the shock and frustration he has felt since that first shooting, which has been followed by a second shooting and about 20 calls demanding a million dollars and threatening to kill him and his family if he doesn’t pay.
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Extortion cases targeting the South Asian community in B.C. have skyrocketed over the last two years, creating public fear and political and police responses.
In Surrey, police are investigating 106 extortion cases this year alone, with 45 of them involving shootings. Some of the 76 victims have been targeted several times.
Abbotsford has also been a major centre of extortions with 65 cases reported over the past two years. Nine have involved shootings — including the two targeting the mechanic.
The City of Surrey has offered a $250,000 reward. The RCMP has set up both a national co-ordination and support team and a B.C. extortion task force, while both Abbotsford and Surrey police have their own local task forces. The Canada Border Services Agency is targeting suspects on expired visas for deportation.
But there have been only a handful of arrests and charges, while the extortion cases continue to rise. As of this week, only six suspects have been charged in confirmed extortion-related incidents on the Lower Mainland.
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In October, the Surrey Police Service announced charges against three men — Mandeep Gidda, Nirmaandeep Cheema, and Arundeep Singh — after a March 27 shooting at a house in the 13300-block of 89A Avenue. Two others were charged with arson in an incident that police said might have been extortion-related.
The provincial task force also said that month that two others — Abjeet Kingra, 26, and Vikram Sharma, 24 — had been charged in an August 2024 shooting and arson at a Surrey home. Both had earlier been charged — and Kingra convicted — in a shooting and arson in September 2024 at the Colwood home of musician and producer AP Dhillon. Sharma is believed to be hiding in India. Both are alleged to have links to the notorious Bishnoi gang, which Canada recently designated a terrorist group.
On Dec. 5, Avtar Singh, 21, was charged with one count of unlawfully discharging a firearm in a shooting targeting an insurance business owner’s home in South Surrey on Nov. 12.
As well, police in India announced that they had arrested Bandhu Maan Singh Sekhon, 28, who they described as a “key strategist” in shootings at Surrey’s Kap’s Café. So far, B.C. police have not commented on Sekhon’s arrest or confirmed a link to any local cases.
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Lovepreet Singh was the victim of an extortion attempt that led to a shooting at his business, 1313 Car Wash, in Surrey. Photo by Jason Payne /PNGFrustration and fear
The lack of charges has frustrated victims, many of whom have been targeted repeatedly.
Lovepreet Singh, a Surrey car wash owner, continues to live in fear after four months of threats and violence and no arrests.
In August, he received a WhatsApp message from a private number demanding that he pay $50,000. He refused, but the threatening calls continued.
The next day his car wash was burglarized and shot up. And a group of men showed up at his home appearing to be holding guns. His family was asleep at the time but he saw the disturbing images on their home security system the next day.
During the week of Nov. 10, Singh said one of the men he recognized from video of the attack on his shop confronted him at Payal Business Centre.
“I think he followed me from my shop,” Singh said. “He tried, two times, to hit my car from behind. His high beams were on. He got out and started asking me for money.”
He doesn’t understand how he became a target.
The Abbotsford mechanic asked not to be identified because of continuing threats — the last of which came in a call to his cellphone on Dec. 7.
Less than 12 hours after his business was shot at, he received a WhatsApp message that included a video of the gunman. Then he got the first call.
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Screenshot of shooter from video sent to Surrey businessman in September, 2025. Screenshot from handout
“I know about you. I know about your family. I know what you drive. I know what your wife drives,” the caller said. “And this thing that happened last night — we did that. We need $1 million. You can’t go anywhere now.”
The mechanic tried to engage the extortionist, who he estimates is in his mid-30s, asking what was wrong and why he had chosen the Abbotsford man as a target.
“I said you got wrong information about me. I’m a middle-class man, right? I don’t have any money in the amount you’re asking for,” he told the caller, who swore and asked why the mechanic was not worried about his family.
In fact, he was worried. He moved his wife and children to another location. He also went to stay with a friend — only to have his friend targeted six days later when his vehicles were shot up in front of his Abbotsford house at 3:40 a.m.
“Then they called me the next afternoon, on 19th of November. They said: ‘Now you know, we’ve got power. We have a better system than your police have. We track you down. We know where you are. Give us some money,’” the mechanic recalled.
“I was reporting every call, each call, and the police know everything.”
Like the mechanic, another Surrey businessman interviewed by Postmedia had not received advance warnings when his former residence was shot up on Sept. 5 at 3:40 a.m. Around the same time, a message was left on his phone about the shooting.
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Police were meeting him the next day when the extortionist called.
The man asked for “millions of dollars” and said, “If you don’t want to pay the money, be ready to die,” said the businessman, who also asked that his name not be used.
The calls continued to come. On Sept. 19, his Surrey business was targeted in another shooting at 8:35 a.m. Police found “many” bullet holes in the rear of the business. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
The extortionist sounded very young and spoke both Punjabi and Hindi, the businessman said. Sometimes the number looked international, starting with 44 — the United Kingdom country code. Other times the call looked to be coming from Europe.
They said ‘the Canadian police can’t do anything. They can’t crack us.
Extortion victim
The caller said he was linked to the Bishnoi gang, though the businessman thinks it might just be a copycat criminal using the gang’s name to intimidate victims.
Police have given the victim all kinds of tips to aid his security: Don’t take the same route twice. Vary your working hours. He is cautious when arriving home, driving past his house if he sees a car on the street he doesn’t recognize.
“That’s the life we are living right now,” he said.
Abbotsford Police told the mechanic to delete WhatsApp from his phone. But then the calls came directly to his cell. If he didn’t answer, his brother or his friend would get a threatening call.
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Beyond that, he is not sure what the police are doing or whether they are making any progress on his case. He said he has no point person in the Abbotsford Police Department that he can call if something happens. It feels like “the police have no powers,” he said.
The caller has mocked the police.
“They said ‘the Canadian police can’t do anything. They can’t crack us,’” the mechanic said.
The businessman also doesn’t understand why Surrey Police can’t do more, like have a police car or undercover officer parked in front of his house. Then they could potentially catch a shooter in the act. Police are doing extra patrols in his neighbourhood, he said. But it’s not enough to ease the fear.
“It is very frustrating,” he said. “I need the security. Somebody can come in the nighttime.”
And he wonders why police can’t use technology to trace the calls and devices so more extortionists and their accomplices can be arrested.
He also thinks the B.C. government and prosecution service should be doing more to make charging the criminal organizations behind the extortions and violence easier to prosecute.
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Scenes from the Ustaad G 76 restaurant after an extortion-related shooting on Oct 6, 2025. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /PNGNew tactics needed
Wade Deisman, a University of the Fraser Valley criminologist, says the actual number of extortion cases is likely much higher than the figures police have released.
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“Extortion always includes the threat of reprisal, that if you go to the authorities that there will be consequences. It’s a crime of intimidation and coercion,” Deisman told Postmedia.
Deisman says Canadian officials are changing the narrative on extortion crimes.
“I think it’s indisputable that it’s connected to Bishnoi. The secondary question becomes, to what extent?” he said.
“The RCMP and CSIS have said as much in 2024, but have kind of walked back the story in 2025 and I think that’s been dismaying for a lot of people in the Indo-Canadian community.”
Deisman thinks Canada is trying to rebuild its relationship with India economically since it’s attempting to become economically independent from the U.S.
“Canada was incredibly dependent on India for the number of international students that were coming to Canada. That was partially because it was seen as a safe haven for folks from Punjab, and I’m sure it’s not seen that way anymore,” he said.
Some of the suspects charged are on student visas and may have got involved because they needed the money, Deisman said.
“Is there a pool of incredibly vulnerable people who could be drawn into this for whatever reason? Or, alternatively, is there a kind of incentive the Bishnoi is doing with financial compensation?”
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Kash Heed, a Richmond city councillor and former B.C. solicitor general, has heard from many in the South Asian community affected by extortion. Some have left the country. Others have simply paid up to end the threats.
Heed, a longtime police officer, says B.C.’s response to the extortion crisis has not been good enough.
A bullet hole at the scene of an extortion-related shooting in Surrey on Oct. 14, 2025. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /PNG
He thinks there should be one single task force led by the RCMP’s federal policing branch instead of local police and the province’s task force as separate investigative bodies.
“And they should be doing everything, from on the ground investigations right up to the source of the people that are giving the directions for these extortions,” Heed said. “It has to be one stream only. This balkanized approach is a disaster.”
Most of the shooters in the extortion cases are “hired guns” — some international students, others low-level B.C. gangsters looking for easy payouts.
“There’s a market for these hired guns to go out and do this intimidation, and there’s a market for people to sell firearms to them,” he said.
When arrests are made, those charged are generally the “low hanging fruit,” instead of the bigger players behind the extortion wave.
“None of these other agencies will have the ability to actually work any of these files up so you truly get the people behind these extortions instead,” Heed said.
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Successful prosecutions in other jurisdictions
Other jurisdictions with extortion problems like Edmonton and the Peel region near Toronto have had more success getting charges and convictions.
Staff Sgt. Marco Antonio, of the Edmonton drug and gang enforcement section, said both Edmonton and Peel did “extensive investigations … both were successful.”
“I know Surrey is drowning and they have a ton of stuff that they’re working through to try to get some good results. The problem is not going away going away any time soon, that’s for sure,” Antonio said in an interview.
Staff Sgt. Marco Antonio, of the Edmonton drug and gang enforcement section, said both Edmonton and Peel did “extensive investigations … both were successful.” Photo by Shaughn Butts /Postmedia
Edmonton Police worked with the RCMP on Project Gaslight, which found that a Brothers Keepers gangster named Maninder Dhaliwal had masterminded the attacks while moving between the United Arab Emirates and India. Dhaliwal was arrested in Dubai last year and is expected to be extradited to Canada.
Seven others have also been charged in Gaslight, with two pleading guilty earlier this year.
The Brothers Keepers started in B.C. a decade ago and has since expanded across Canada. Antonio alleged that Dhaliwal, who left Edmonton in July 2023, would call some of the victims and claim to be working with the Bishnoi gang in India.
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He said that “the vital piece to making headway on these types of events is that intelligence sharing and working together, because they’re not just happening in one jurisdiction, they’re happening across the country.
“Surrey events are tied to Edmonton events that are tied to Brampton events. So these guys will travel between locations, and we’re seeing that,” he said.
The Vancouver Police Department invited the community to a forum where officers discussed the extortions impacting communities in Metro Vancouver. Photo by Arlen Redekop /PNG
Guns have been used in extortion shootings in more than one province, Antonio said.
Reaching out to victims through community forums was also critical to success, he added. Town halls have also been organized in B.C. and Ontario.
“We know that there were payments that were being made by people, rather than calling us,” Antonio said. “We need the co-operation from the community. That’s absolutely vital.”
Since Gaslight concluded, there have been other extortion cases, though the criminals’ methods were slightly different, he said.
“We need to be consistently proactive, not just reactive, on this kind of stuff,” he said. “It comes in waves. It comes and goes. As soon as we start targeting and start making an impact on some targets, they’re going to go to ground … but there’s other people who will pick up the mantle and continue on.”
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Back in B.C., the impact on the Abbotsford mechanic’s business has been as devastating as the fear. Some of his workers quit. And he can only open for a few hours a day. He is worried about paying his overhead.
“Everything is messed up,” he told Postmedia.
He is thinking of moving back to India unless the threats stop, leaving behind the life he has created since arriving here in 2007.
“I worked hard. I built (my business) and this is a time for me to grow. And this thing happened and put me in trouble. My parents got scared. My parents want me to go back to India,” he said.
The Surrey businessman has vowed to stay put despite getting between 15 and 20 threatening calls over the last three months.
“I’m not afraid. If they want to kill us, they can kill us,” he said. “I don’t want to leave my city. I want to stay. I don’t want to leave my group. I want to stay.”
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