The province is seeking to seize a $5.5-million home the FBI and RCMP link to Indian gangs’ extortion and drug trafficking in Metro Vancouver

A West Vancouver man alleged to be a gang kingpin connected to extortion and international drug trafficking has been arrested in France as part of the FBI’s Operation Hardball, the RCMP said Friday.

Garinder Singh Deo, 40, was taken into custody on Tuesday and is awaiting extradition to the United States, according to the RCMP’s Federal Policing Pacific Region.

Deo was arrested the same day that his West Vancouver home at 2030 Westdean Cres. was raided by the RCMP accompanied by armoured emergency response team members.

Other arrests were made worldwide on Tuesday following the joint two-year investigation focussing on incidents of extortion and violence that have chiefly targeted members of the South Asian diaspora including multiple incidents in Metro Vancouver. Those included the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent political and religious leader from India’s Punjab state who was gunned down as he left a Sikh temple in Surrey in June 2023.

Deo is listed as a beneficial owner of the West Vancouver property raided by police as well as president and sole director of the numbered company that is the registered owner of the home.

B.C.’s Civil Forfeiture Office has also filed court documents asking that the $5.5 million home, as well as two other properties in Surrey where Deo is also the beneficial owner, be seized and handed over to the government as proceeds of crime.

According to court documents, Deo bought the Westdean property through his numbered company in 2020 for $2.8 million, then rebuilt the home on site in 2023.

Meanwhile, between July 2021 and December 2025, “suspicious transactions” by Deo, his wife and other family members totalling $2 million were reported by the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada. Those included “large or rapid movement of funds,” financial activity not commensurate with his stated occupation, unknown sources of funds, large payments towards credit cards, luxury spending, and transactions consistent with “unlawful activities”, according to court documents.

In 2024, the RCMP began a joint investigation with the FBI into organized criminal activities centred on three India-based gangs, according to the court documents. Deo was among those investigated for his connections to organized crime gangs in Metro Vancouver as well as drug trafficking, money laundering, guns running and activities that enriched terrorist groups, according to the lawsuit.

Those alleged crimes were spelled out in more detail in U.S. indictment documents, which list Deo – also known as “Doctor,” “Rocket,” and “Ritz Carlton”

– among a group who conspired to traffic heroin and cocaine from “Mexico-based sources of supply for distribution to clients in Canada and the eastern United States.”

In its lawsuit, B.C.’s Director of Civil Forfeiture has asked the courts to forfeit the West Vancouver house and the two Surrey properties to the government, because “some or all of the funds used to acquire or maintain the properties were proceeds of the unlawful activity.”

Operation Hardball also included investigation into trafficking of large quantities of drugs across the Canada-U.S. border, many of those in long-haul semi trucks.

A total of 37 people have been charged in connection with the investigation, including two men who allegedly ran their criminal organizations from jail in India.

Three people in B.C. were taken into custody by the RCMP on provisional arrest warrants. An application will be made to have them extradited to the U.S.

According to the U.S. indictments, the criminal gangs routinely targeted prominent members of the community including religious leaders for extortion.

The indictments also pointed to a November 2023 incident in which gang leader Lawrence Bishnoi – who is jailed in India – claimed responsibility for a late-night shooting that happened at the West Vancouver home of a prominent Indian actor and singer.

Police were tight-lipped about the details at the time, but following the shooting, a famous Bollywood actor posted on social media that it was his home that was targeted.

According to the indictment released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Bishnoi claimed responsibility on behalf of his gang, the Lawrence Bishnoi Group, commenting in an online Facebook post in Punjabi on Nov. 25, 2023 “no one can save you from us.”

According to the indictment, between December 2025 and March 2026, another suspect arrested this week contacted a phone number used by the actor and his manager multiple times, making threats in Punjabi, and demanding payment, saying “you can ignore my message, you will not be able to ignore the bullets coming your way.”