Law enforcement authorities in America, Canada and Europe announced the arrests of 24 individuals with links to India-based transnational organised crime groups for criminal acts like racketeering, shootings, extortion and even the 2023 assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada.
In total, 37 individuals have been charged with a number of offences, including gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, who is currently imprisoned in India.
A statement from the US Attorney’s office in Los Angeles alleges that Bishnoi and his lieutenants directed a transnational organised crime group from his jail cell “using contraband cellphones and other voice-over internet protocol devices smuggled into his jail cell” and charges them directly with ordering the assassination of Nijjar.
Also Read | Pahalgam attack: NIA charge sheets LeT’s Hafiz Saeed; details Pakistan’s role
The arrests came after a years-long investigation into the activities of organised crime groups with links to India, the authorities said.
“Today’s law enforcement action – “Operation Hard Ball” – is the result of a years-long 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 whose impact is especially felt in the Indian diaspora,” said a statement from the US Department of Justice.
{{/usCountry}}“Today’s law enforcement action – “Operation Hard Ball” – is the result of a years-long 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 whose impact is especially felt in the Indian diaspora,” said a statement from the US Department of Justice.
{{/usCountry}}Enforcement authorities are still looking for 10 fugitives, seven of whom are in the United States, two in India, and one in Europe.
The indictments focus heavily on the activities of Lawrence Bishnoi and lieutenants like Goldy Brar as well as the Bhagwanpuria gang, which is headquartered in India with members reportedly across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
Also Read | MHA designates 23 Pakistan-based individuals linked to JeM, LeT as terrorists under UAPA
Many of the defendants charged could face a mandatory minimum prison sentence between 10 years in federal prison and life imprisonment, and a statutory maximum sentence of life in federal prison if convicted.
According to the Department of Justice, the Bishnoi gang is accused of engaging in violent activities in the countries in which it operated and using violence to “cultivate a climate of fear, in particular in India and among Indian diaspora communities worldwide.”
Bishnoi and Brar have also been charged for ordering the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a pro-Khalistan figure, as he left a Sikh temple in Canada on June 18, 2023.
Investigators have said that Anmol Bishnoi (arrested in the US in 2024) and Goldy Brar run the activities of the gang headed by Lawrence Bishnoi, who is in prison in Gujarat’s Sabarmati since August, 2023. In recent years, the gang has been accused of carrying out several high-profile murders, such as former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique and Punjabi rapper Sidhu Moosewala. It routinely carries out extortion in collaboration with other gang leaders who terrorise celebrities, industrialists, political functionaries and sportspersons.
“Their syndicate is spread across the states (and union territories) that include Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bihar and Jharkhand and recruitment, payments to gang members, supply of weapons etc is managed from abroad, mostly by Anmol, Goldy Brar and few other close aides of Lawrence,” a law enforcement officer in India told HT.
The Bishnoi gang is also closely associated with pro-Khalistan groups including Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and agencies feel that Anmol Bishnoi and Goldy Brar run those operations as well.
The ‘new underworld’
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has called this entire network the new underworld.
In a charge sheet filed in March 2023 into the gangsters’ activities, NIA said the nexus of gangsters and pro-Khalistani elements and their links with the music industry, singers, kabaddi players and advocates was working on the lines of the pre-1993 Mumbai blasts era when extensive linkages of the underworld with the business people and the film industry had surfaced.
According to NIA, a considerable amount of money generated by Lawrence Bishnoi through his activities is sent to Canada, USA, Thailand and Australia for the use of gang members. His gang has 700 members, who, NIA says, have generated crores of rupees over the years. Overall, close to 300 gangsters and mid-level criminals have been arrested by the NIA and the Delhi Police as part of a larger crackdown since August last year.
According to the US law enforcement, the Bishnoi gang is also accused of engaging in international drug trafficking and stealing drug shipments from rival gangs. Similar drug trafficking charges were unveiled against members of the Punjab-based Bhagwanpuria gang and a group led by Canada-based Ravinder Singh Dhanda.
“Transnational criminal gangs who spread fear, drugs, and violence will face the full force of justice and the weight of the federal government,” said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli.
“Working together, law enforcement in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia are determined to target and dismantle these criminal organisations wherever they operate. There is no safe harbour for these thugs,” he added.