{"id":545458,"date":"2026-03-18T22:43:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T22:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/545458\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T22:43:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T22:43:22","slug":"cbsa-opens-372-immigration-investigations-to-disrupt-extortion-networks-in-canada-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/545458\/","title":{"rendered":"CBSA opens 372 immigration investigations to \u2018disrupt extortion networks\u2019 in Canada \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2013 Canada Border Services Agency says it has opened 372 immigration investigations in an effort to \u201cdisrupt extortion networks\u201d across the country.<\/p>\n

It says the CBSA began formally monitoring immigration enforcement cases potentially linked to extortion in the Pacific and Prairie regions last August before expanding the work to the Greater Toronto Area in November.<\/p>\n

The agency says that as of last Thursday, it had issued a total of 70 removal orders on various inadmissibility grounds, and 35 have been enforced.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA Canada Border Services Agency patch is seen on the uniform of a CBSA officer at Vancouver International Airport, in Richmond, B.C., on Friday, October 3, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Darryl Dyck<\/p>\n

Among the communities most impacted by extortion is Surrey, B.C., where there were 133 reported cases of extortions in 2025 and police are looking into 64 cases so far this year.<\/p>\n

The CBSA says it is investigating people alleged to be engaged in extortion, operating a tip line where it encourages people to share information or directly report the \u201cwhereabouts of those who are inadmissible to Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agency\u2019s president, Erin O\u2019Gorman, says in the news release that extortion \u201cempowers organized criminal groups, targets vulnerable people and inflicts lasting harm on Canadian communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CBSA is committed to using every tool we have to counter this threat,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy increasing our removal capacity and deepening our partnerships with police, we have made significant progress toward ensuring these criminals cannot remain in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agency highlighted two deportation cases, including that of Arshdeep Singh, who entered Canada \u00a0on a study permit in 2022 but was arrested by border officers last year, accused of \u201cmembership in a criminal organization linked to extortion, arson, drug trafficking, and firearm offences.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CBSA says he was removed from Canada under escort in January.<\/p>\n

Another deportee, Sukhnaaz Singh Sandhu, entered Canada as a temporary resident in 2016 but was arrested and detained for inadmissibility due to \u201corganized criminality\u201d in 2025, the agency says.<\/p>\n

The CBSA says he was held in immigration detention on the grounds of being a danger to the public until his deportation under escort last month.<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 18, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OTTAWA \u2013 Canada Border Services Agency says it has opened 372 immigration investigations in an effort to \u201cdisrupt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-545458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545458","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=545458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}