Peel’s South Asian community makes up more than half the region's population; it's now the target of organized crime

For more than a year members of Peel’s South Asian community, which makes up more than half of the region’s population, have felt a growing sense of dread.  

Reports of violence, intimidation, extortion, even murder at the hands of organized criminals targeting South Asian-Canadians have become more and more common, with alleged ties to the other side of the world, in India, where most of the local members of the community trace their roots to. 

On May 14, Harjeet Singh Dhadda, 51, a commercial insurance broker and owner of G&G Trucking Solutions, was shot several times in broad daylight in a Mississauga parking lot. Police are investigating the murder.

The victim’s daughter, Gurleen Dhadda, posted on Instagram that her father received multiple threats from extortionists and Peel Police was contacted.

“For the past few years, my father was receiving repeated threats and extortion calls. In April 2023, we even faced a possible attack. We reported these threats to the police. We begged for protection. But our cries for help went unanswered. The system that was supposed to keep us safe failed him,” she wrote.

“Despite clear signs of danger, no security was provided by police.. No meaningful action was taken. And now, an innocent man is gone. Our community is grieving, but we are also outraged. We ask: What is the government doing about rising extortion and targeted violence? Why are innocent people left defenceless while the threats grow louder? When the authorities fail to protect us, what options do-we have?”

She told local Punjabi media that her father was being extorted by criminals linked to India, demanding $500,000, which he refused to pay, leading to his assassination.

A South Asian-Canadian businesswoman in Brampton who owns restaurants in the city told The Pointer of similar threats she has received. She asked that her name not be used. “I don’t want those guys to come after me.”

A Brampton car dealership was also reportedly targeted last year.

“I’ve received extortion calls at least five times,” Manpreet Boparai, owner of 22 Auto Sales, said in a Punjabi-language interview with OMNI Television. “Our Caledon Mitsubishi dealership was shot at multiple times—36 rounds were fired. What about the families who get calls every day, being told, ‘We’re going to kill you,’ or ‘We know where you and your kids go’? After the threats, I spent 20 days hiding out at a friend’s house. I changed my home, changed my phone number—and I’m still getting calls.”

Last month, Peel Regional Police, with the help of GTA law enforcement partners and the Canadian Border Services Agency, arrested 18 individuals from a Brampton-based criminal ring allegedly involved in extortion targeting South Asian businesses and families for money, and allegedly staging car collisions in a widespread insurance fraud scheme involving the local towing industry.

They now face 97 charges, including fraud, illegal possession of firearms and violent extortion.

Peel Police officials said during a June 17 press conference announcing the arrests that the South Asian community is at high risk of extortion crimes. Brian Lorette, a Detective Sergeant with Peel Police and the lead investigator of the operation, dubbed Project Outsource, said the force seized $4.2 million in assets, including 18 tow trucks, four high-end personal vehicles, six firearms, 600 rounds of ammunition, and recovered five stolen vehicles.

"Our investigators identified a specific Brampton-based group believed to be behind a significant portion of these crimes, as well as offences in the towing industry," he said. "We believe the guns and tow trucks seized during this investigation, as well as the arrests made, will have a significant impact on our region, as well as across the GTA and throughout Canada."

About six months prior to the launch of Project Outsource in July last year, Peel Police took steps to address what officials described as a “disturbing trend of extortion attempts” targeting the South Asian business community. 

In December 2023, the force launched an Extortion Investigative Task Force and urged Peel residents and business owners to contact officers if threatened. 

“Suspects are using social media platforms to contact victims and perform these illegal acts. They often know the victim’s name, phone number, address and business information,” according to a press release in 2023. 

The investigative team was officially launched after a 23-year-old from Abbotsford, BC was arrested for firing multiple rounds into a business establishment near Rutherford Road South and Clark Boulevard in Brampton in December that year. 

“This has caused grave safety and security concerns among our community members,” Chief Nishan Duraiappah said at the end of 2023.

A Brampton resident contacted The Pointer about the growing feeling of unease among many in the city’s South Asian-Canadian community. He did not want his name used but his identity was verified. The man, who is in his 30s and has lived in Brampton all his life, expressed what he described as a common feeling of constant dread among many in the Punjabi community.

"I'm very concerned, because it can happen to anybody… I feel like the extortion that's happening here is on behalf of other people that are maybe not in the country," the resident said.

"I believe that the Trudeau government did bring in some [policies] to make it a little bit more difficult for these gangs to establish roots here, and it made it easier to deport them back to India. But I feel like now that the trade relationship has also taken a little bit more priority, those [policies] were repealed by Mr. Carney in order to make a better relationship with India again. So, yeah, overall, I would say I feel very unsafe and that there are no adequate protections for citizens."

He described a deepening frustration among his friends, neighbours and relatives. "The mood in the community is one of, kind of like, defeat, yeah, kind of like defeat, like, you know what's going on, and where is this going to stop? Where does it end, right? So it doesn't seem like it's getting any better. So we're kind of like as a community, I don't know; I can't speak for the whole community, but whoever I know, whoever I speak to—my father, his friends—we all feel kind of like we're defeated."

The resident believes that there is some kind of connection between the internationally notorious Bishnoi gang and the 18 extortionists arrested by Peel Police.

He mentioned the widely publicized shootings at Boparai’s car dealership, and the murder of Mr. Dhadda in Mississauga, saying such stories are becoming more common and have left the South Asian community feeling threatened.

"I would say that hearing this makes us all feel unsafe and also targeted, specifically that these extortions are not happening in any other community, and that's a good thing. God forbid it happens to any community. But when you hear it happening time and time again to the exact same community, like you're talking about 22 Auto Sales, that guy is from the South Asian community as well, right. And like that, Dhadda was also South Asian. And a lot of these businesses that are being targeted time and time again are all South Asian. So why is this happening only to our community?"

Near the start of 2024, Peel Police announced the arrest of four individuals—3 from Brampton, 1 from Mississauga—in connection to extortion attempts across the GTA. 

Acknowledging the scale of the growing problem—police were investigating 29 different extortion attempts at the time—Chief Duraiappah said there could be more victims, and urged community members and business owners to come forward with any information. 

In April 2025, the extortion task force responded after a business in the area of Queen Street and Kennedy Road South in Brampton was shot at. That investigation led to the arrest of three men from Brampton.

Those arrested last month as part of Project Outsource.

(Peel Regional Police)

When asked during the June 17 press conference if the 18 individuals arrested as part of Project Outsource specifically targeted one community, Durraiapah confirmed that the extortion network had focused its operations on the South Asian business community, mirroring tactics used by organized criminals in other North American jurisdictions with dense pockets of the South Asian diaspora, identifying places that have large Punjabi populations.

Brampton has one of the largest Sikh-Punjabi communities in the world, outside India. Many are now being targeted by organized criminals.

In a press release by the World Sikh Organization (WSO) on June 17, the organization made connections between organized crime in Canada and groups in India with ties to the country’s government that have allegedly been responsible for targeting South Asian communities here.

“Canadian law enforcement and intelligence agencies have linked the Bishnoi gang to assassinations, extortions, and intimidation carried out at the direction of Indian government agents, including the 2023 murder of Canadian Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar and other violent crimes.”  

On October 14 the RCMP shared shocking information about investigations into the Indian government’s involvement in attacks against Canadians and the use of the Bishnoi gang, led by Lawrence Bishnoi, a well known Indian organized crime leader who has been in jail since 2014. RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme, together with Assistant Commissioner Brigitte Gauvin, said the “Bishnoi gang” has connections to the Indian government and is involved in criminal acts, including the murder of Sikh activists.

“I won’t be providing any further details in regard to the specificity of those investigations, but what we have seen from an RCMP perspective is the use of organized crime elements,” Gauvin detailed. “And I will say… it’s been publicly attributed and claimed by one organized crime group in particular, which is the Bishnoi group.”

“That’s what we are seeing here in Canada, and we believe that that group is connected to agents of the government of India.”

On June 17, British Columbia Premier David Eby urged Prime Minister Mark Carney to place the Bishnoi gang on the country’s list of terrorist organizations. The move was later lauded by the WSO.

Mr. Nijjar’s assassination is linked to the Indian government, according to an unsealed U.S. indictment that details the Department of Justice’s evidence.  

American law enforcement charged a man named Vikash Yadav last year in a murder-for-hire and money laundering case linked to Nijjar’ murder and an alleged plot to kill a dual Canadian-American citizen, New York-based lawyer Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the leader of a global effort to highlight India’s denial of human rights to Sikhs.

A press release by the DOJ highlighted the alarming charges.

“The Justice Department will be relentless in holding accountable any person — regardless of their position or proximity to power — who seeks to harm and silence American citizens. As alleged, last year, we foiled an attempt by Vikash Yadav, an Indian government employee, and his co-conspirator, Nikhil Gupta, to assassinate an American citizen on U.S. soil. Today’s charges demonstrate that the Justice Department will not tolerate attempts to target and endanger Americans and to undermine the rights to which every U.S. citizen is entitled.”

Sikh rights activist and dual Canadian-American citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun was the target of an assassination plot allegedly orchestrated by the Indian government. 

(Supplied)

During the media briefing last month when the charges against the 18 Brampton-based accused were detailed, Peel Police said they had not found any connections between the extortion group and the Bishnoi gang or the Indian government. But according to Indian media, the Bishnoi gang has claimed responsibility for Dhadda's murder in Mississauga. 

The RCMP, working with law enforcement, has issued Duty to Warn notices to Sikh Canadians living in Peel, advising specific individuals to be cautious as they might be the targets of criminal networks with ties to the Indian government.

Inderjeet Singh Gosal, centre, says his construction site in Brampton has been shot at.

(Sikhs For Justice)

Inderjeet Singh Gosal, a Sikh activist who lives in Brampton, was one of the local residents who received a Duty to Warn notice. He told The Pointer in October that gunshots were fired at his construction site in February of 2024.

"I'd gone up to my construction site. I'm a home builder, and…there were bullet holes in my windows at my site, and local law enforcement was called right when I saw it; they did confirm it was bullet holes.”

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