shared with OMNI News<\/a> the terrifying moment he awoke to the sounds of gunshots hitting his home.<\/p>\n\u201cI have no clue what to do. I was so scared. My kids were scared,\u201d said Mand.<\/p>\n
The incident happened just weeks after\u00a0criminals targeted his\u00a0family restaurant\u00a0in a separate shooting. <\/p>\n
Mand\u00a0believes he and his family have been targeted for extortion, showing OMNI News the many Whatsapp messages he\u2019s received aimed at intimidating and threatening him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThree months ago, they were demanding $3 million ransom \u2026 they said, \u2018Oh we know you guys have money and we know how to get it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mand\u2019s case is one at least 436 extortion cases reported in Peel Region so far this year. The situation has become so dire, officials in Brampton are now calling on the provincial and federal governments for help.<\/p>\n
Peel police say the 436 reports of extortion happened between Jan. 1 and Nov. 30, 2025, a slight decrease from the 490 reports in 2024, but a sharp increase from 319 extortion reports in 2023. Another 481 armed robberies were reported.<\/p>\n
Police acknowledged the rise of extortion-related incidents and \u201cthe significant impact these crimes have on our community, including South Asian residents and business owners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown has written letters to both levels of government, asking for targeted funding for victim\u00a0services and a specialized task force, along with better intelligence sharing. The call for help was prompted by a motion from Deputy Mayor Harkirat Singh.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy phone last month has been at its highest, at the highest amount of volume related to business extortions. Every day we\u2019re hearing about new cases, and so I decided to speak out,\u201d shared Singh.<\/p>\n
Singh says in Peel Region alone the number of business-related extortion cases\u00a0has risen dramatically, from just 50 in 2023 to 153 in 2024 and now up to 172 so far this year. <\/p>\n
Per capita, he said, the rate of extortion cases sits significantly higher than any other jurisdiction in Canada.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last month, Ottawa\u00a0announced that British Columbia would be receiving more than $5 million in provincial and federal funding to combat organized crime and support extortion victims. Singh said it\u2019s only fair that Peel Region see financial support as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we look at per capita ratio, we should technically have more than B.C. \u2026 we don\u2019t want to see this trend continue next year and be having these conversations again,\u201d shared Singh.<\/p>\n
Premier Doug Ford\u2019s office said it had yet to receive the letter, but the premier said this afternoon they are already working with the federal government on this issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the RCMP has a task force along with the OPP, along with Peel,\u201d said Ford. \u201cWe\u2019re throwing every single resource we can to combat this.\u201d<\/p>\n
A statement from Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said they are taking action, convening a summit in Peel region in January with a goal to bring together governments and law enforcement to address extortion head-on.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will give serious consideration to the proposals Brampton Council is advancing,\u201d read the statement. \u201cAs we saw in British Columbia, the best way to attack this crime is to bring all orders of government together to share ideas and pool resources. Municipalities, provinces and the federal government have a role to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason for us to go so public on this is the urgency, and so we hope they sense the urgency,\u201d said Singh. \u201cHopefully, we get everybody to the table to make some important announcement in the next few days or weeks to come.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In data shared with OMNI News, Peel police said as a part of multiple investigations targeting organized networks involved in extortion and violent crime, 465 charges have been laid and over $54.9 million was recovered in assets, including cash, property and illicit goods.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe remain committed to leading the fight against organized criminal networks and extortionists to help keep our communities safe,\u201d read Peel police\u2019s statement to OMNI News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown is calling on the province and the federal government for help as his city…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194339],"tags":[51759,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-500987","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brampton","8":"tag-brampton","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}