{"id":546751,"date":"2026-03-19T12:44:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/546751\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T12:44:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:44:15","slug":"cbsa-says-efforts-to-disrupt-extortion-networks-led-to-70-removal-orders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/546751\/","title":{"rendered":"CBSA says efforts to \u2018disrupt extortion networks\u2019 led to 70 removal orders"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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It says the CBSA<\/a> 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

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

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A followup email from the agency says as of March 12, 34 removal orders were issued in Pacific region, which includes B.C. and the Yukon, and 25 people have already been removed from Canada.<\/p>\n

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It says the Pacific region\u2019s first extortion-related immigration investigation began on August 26, 2025, ahead of the September announcement of B.C.\u2019s Extortion Task Force.<\/p>\n

Federal Conservative shadow minister for immigration Michelle Rempel Garner said in a statement that there were more than 13,000 reported incidents of extortion in Canada in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile not all extortion incidents involve individuals who should be deported, the fact that CBSA has still only managed to enforce 35 removal orders does not denote progress,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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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

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\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 on 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

\n\t\t&copy 2026 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Canada Border Services Agency says it has opened 372 immigration investigations in an effort to \u201cdisrupt extortion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,44005,2169,68979,43,6680,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-546751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-canada","tag-cbsa","tag-crime","tag-extortion","tag-headlines","tag-immigration","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546751","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=546751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}