At an immigration hearing for an alleged Indian gangster last week, an Edmonton Police officer described the scale of criminal operations now confronting law enforcement. The hearing involved Jashandeep Singh, an Indian national photographed with an illegal firearm linked to extortion-related violence in Edmonton.
Singh testified through a Punjabi translator that he believed the gun was a replica and had no knowledge that Arshdeep Singh, who gave him the weapon, was involved in organized crime. Arshdeep Singh was deported in January after the Canada Border Services Agency deemed him inadmissible due to membership in a criminal organization involved in extortion, arson, drug trafficking, and firearm offenses.
Both Singhs entered Canada on student visas in 2022. Edmonton Police Constable Kevin St. Louis noted that this pattern is typical: every individual identified in the investigation is a temporary foreign worker or student visa holder relatively new to Canada.
Between 2022 and 2024, Canada experienced an unprecedented surge in temporary migration, with millions of students, asylum seekers, and temporary foreign workers entering the country, overwhelming security checks. This influx has facilitated the rapid emergence of the Bishnoi gang, a powerful Indian criminal organization.
In September, 26-year-old Indian national Abjeet Kingra was sentenced to two years for participating in a shooting attack on the home of Indo-Canadian rapper AP Dhillon in Greater Victoria. Kingra had entered Canada on a student visa. His case is linked to the Bishnoi gang, which Canada designated as a terrorist entity last September.
The gang is led by 33-year-old Lawrence Bishnoi, who directs operations from a high-security Indian prison where he has been incarcerated for a decade. The Bishnoi gang's primary activity in Canada is extortion, targeting South Asian business owners with demands for protection money, backed by threats of violence or arson. An RCMP-circulated extortion letter in 2023 read: 'WARNING. we are Indian gang members, we want our share from your business like protection money.'
