Local and federal law enforcement officials in Los Angeles on Tuesday, July 7 announced the arrest of two-dozen defendants \u2014 11 of them in California \u2014 connected to what authorities say are three India-based transnational organized crime rings and charged with a range of criminal acts, including the assassination in Canada in 2023 of a prominent Indian political and religious figure.<\/p>\n
The crackdown, dubbed Operation Hard Ball, is the result of a yearslong federal investigation into Indian crime syndicates that engage in racketeering, targeted killings, shootings, extortion, the trafficking of bulk quantities of narcotics across international borders, and other crimes around the world with an impact is especially felt in the Indian diaspora, officials said.<\/p>\n
In all, 37 defendants \u2014 including two who allegedly ran their global criminal syndicates while imprisoned in India \u2014 are charged across three indictments unsealed Tuesday in L.A. federal court.<\/p>\n
As part of the investigation, law enforcement seized over 2,000 pounds of cocaine and more than one pound of heroin along with cash and firearms.<\/p>\n
In the Los Angeles area, 11 search warrants were executed.<\/p>\n
About 6 a.m. Tuesday, an FBI task force served a search warrant at a home in the 31000 block of Nice Avenue in Mentone. The operation involved deputies from the San Bernardino County, Riverside County and Orange County sheriff\u2019s departments, San Bernardino police and the U.S. Border Patrol. Investigators were seen removing boxes from the residence. A woman who answered the door declined to comment except to say she had retained an attorney and:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t really know what\u2019s going on right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said the raid was connected to Operation Hardball.<\/p>\n
\u201cWorking together, law enforcement in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia are determined to target and dismantle these criminal organizations wherever they operate,\u201d First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement. \u201cThere is no safe harbor for these thugs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defendants include Lawrence Bishnoi, 33, an accused gangster long imprisoned in India, who allegedly ran a criminal enterprise that spanned multiple continents. Using contraband cellphones, Bishnoi directed political assassinations, murders, shootings, extortions, kidnappings, drug trafficking, human smuggling and other crimes, according to the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
Bishnoi and his accomplices allegedly extorted victims via WhatsApp and other encrypted messaging applications by threatening violence against the victims or their families. For example, Bishnoi and others attempted to extort victims in Los Angeles and Thousand Oaks, demanding in December 2025 and January 2026 that a $5 million payment be made, prosecutors contend.<\/p>\n
A seven-count federal grand jury indictment also charges Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, 38, an alleged gangster also imprisoned in India. Among other crimes, Bhagwanpuria is accused of funding activities through drug trafficking, including via drug transportation sub-networks in Los Angeles and the Inland Empire, as well as through illegal firearms dealing, federal prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
The third indictment filed in downtown Los Angeles charges Ravinder Singh Dhanda, 57, of Vancouver, Canada, and co-defendants with smuggling and distributing hundreds of pounds of cocaine and methamphetamine each week from the U.S. into Canada.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office alleges that the cocaine and methamphetamine were concealed and transported on long-haul semi-trucks from the greater Los Angeles area \u2014 including from West Covina, Ontario, Fontana and Perris.<\/p>\n
Southern California News Group writer Joe Nelson contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Local and federal law enforcement officials in Los Angeles on Tuesday, July 7 announced the arrest of two-dozen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,1312,723,138,137,100,611,612,5518,136],"class_list":["post-390200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-riverside-county","tag-san-bernardino-county","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}