The RCMP say they directed the FBI to arrest and charge a California man who allegedly threatened a suburban Vancouver victim on behalf of India’s notorious Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
The Langley detachment of the RCMP announced the American charge of interstate communication of threats of violence Thursday against Jasmeet Singh of Fresno, Calif., related to WhatsApp calls made in May, 2024.
Mr. Singh, who entered the United States in the spring of 2023, is in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the official criminal complaint filed by the FBI says.
The complaint, filed on Nov. 26 in the Eastern District of California, alleges that Mr. Singh was seeking revenge against the Langley victim. That’s because, the same day he allegedly made those threatening calls, two associates in India were charged with the 2022 attempted blackmail of the Langley victim, who moved to Canada at the start of last year, according to the document.
The FBI claims in the document that Mr. Singh specifically told the victim they would be killed for co-operating with Indian police.
Who is Lawrence Bishnoi, the man at centre of row between India and Canada?
“You’re going to die,” Mr. Singh said in one of the calls, according to the charge document, adding, “Will kill you today or kill you tomorrow.”
None of the allegations have been proven in court, and neither Mr. Singh nor his lawyer was reachable for comment.
The charge comes as authorities in British Columbia are promising to step up the investigation and deterrence of the Bishnoi gang and copycats terrorizing South Asian businesspeople during waves of extortion threats made over the past two years.
This fall, B.C. announced the creation of a 40-person police unit to crack down on this wide-scale extortion, including a wave of shootings in recent months that echoes similar violence seen across Alberta and Ontario. RCMP leaders and B.C.’s Public Safety Minister acknowledged at the time that the community was deservedly angry at the lack of charges in the province.
In this new case, the FBI allege that Mr. Singh also sent an intimidating photo of the victim’s car parked outside their home, and told them he knew where they shopped and how many coffees they liked to order at their local café – proof he had partners up in Canada surveilling them.
Opinion: Naming Bishnoi gang a terrorist entity was necessary, but political peril remains
The victim called the RCMP and, in a subsequent interview, revealed that they had received another violent threat months earlier from an unknown caller in India. The caller identified themselves as a Bishnoi gang member angry at the victim’s earlier co-operation with police in that country, the document states.
After these threats, the victim told Mounties: “I want to go to India. How will I go there, tell me? I have a lot of danger. How can I go? … because I do have fear. If I go, they will kill me.”
For years, violent incidents have been the gang’s stock in trade, as police say it is increasingly targeting affluent members of Canada’s South Asian community for extortion. The gang’s business hinges on fear and intimidation, and police here acknowledge they have had major difficulties stopping a group based halfway around the globe that is now inspiring homegrown Canadian copycats.
Ottawa recently designated the Bishnoi gang a terrorist organization in order to give law-enforcement agencies more tools to disrupt and deter the decentralized criminal organization that defies borders and conventional gang structures.