A joint operation involving Edmonton police has led to the deportation of two men, over what police say is a wave of extortions targeting the city’s South Asian community.
Edmonton Police Service along with officials from the Lower Mainland District RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) provided new details Thursday during a news conference.
CBSA said at the news conference it deported a 22-year-old man who was allegedly the ringleader in carrying out extortions in the Edmonton area.
A 25-year-old man was also removed from Canada and three others are being investigated.
CBSA later confirmed to CBC News that the two men in question are Indian nationals Arshdeep Singh, Sukhnaaz Singh Sandhu.
Officials said some of the suspects are connected to extortions in Calgary, the B.C. Lower Mainland and Ontario.
According to Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) records obtained by CBC News, Arshdeep Singh and Sukhnaaz Singh Sandhu were known to each other — and to the alleged “prime conspirator” behind a series of extortion-linked shootings at a Surrey, B.C., café.
Police said Thursday that another 51 suspects are linked to criminal network believed to be responsible for orchestrating alleged extortions in Edmonton.
Joint forces operation
EPS, together with the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team (ALERT), RCMP and CBSA, have created a joint forces operation to investigate a string of reported extortion attempts.
EPS Supt. Robinder Gill, with the Criminal Investigations Division of EPS, said this latest investigation comes after an uptick in extortion cases after the EPS investigation Project Gaslight ended in 2024.
“In the spring of 2025 we saw a cluster of these extortion events now re-emerge,” Gill said.
“We know that this crime type is evolving here in Canada. We also know that these organized crime groups are highly adaptable, and they are constantly evolving in their tactics.”
Gill said the structure of these groups is a tiered, predatory network of organized crime where “the risk is local, the revenue is global, and the fallout is the erosion of the very trust that holds the Southeast Asian community together.”
Kristine Conroy, an enforcement manager with the CBSA, said the federal agency started 372 extortion related immigration investigations and 51 of those are directly tied to the investigation in Edmonton.
“The success of this co-ordinated operation in Edmonton is a testament to the dedication of the CBSA, the Edmonton Police Service alert, and the RCMP, to stopping this evolving threat of extortion within our communities nationwide,” Conroy said.
As of March 12, the CBSA has issued 70 removal orders, and of those, 35 people have already been removed from Canada, Conroy said.
Chief Supt. Duncan Pound, a commander with Lower Mainland District RCMP, said Thursday the national and international nature of the crimes has required collaboration across police forces and levels of governments.
“We need to work in co-operation, because we understand that the criminal organizations that are responsible for these extortions travel across this country and seek to escape punishment by moving to different jurisdictions,” Pound said.
“Our collective efforts have established connections between firearms, vehicles, suspects, businesses that span across this country and they are not respecting borders, and that’s why the approach must and does, as my partners have alluded to today, ensure that we are working together and sharing information on a daily, if not hourly basis to ensure that we understand exactly what’s happening in this evolving threat.”
Deportation before charges
When asked by reporters why the two were deported before being charged, Gill said it was a matter of safety.
“You have such high stakes and dynamics, and public safety is first and foremost,” said Gill.
“And you have complainants that are being terrorized in many ways through the actions of these individuals, you try to figure out, how can you nullify and eliminate that threat?”
That factor, coupled with the time required for the cases to make their way through the criminal justice system, made deportation appealing for law enforcement.
But not everyone agrees with the decision to deport.
Kash Heed, former police officer and former minister of public safety and solicitor general of B.C., said he thinks it was the wrong move.
“They didn’t serve any real custody time in in Canada. They just got to go back home at the expense of the taxpayer here in Canada. It makes no sense whatsoever,” Heed said in an interview with CBC News.
“And the community sees that. Canadians see that, these policy makers, these politicians and these police leaders have to give their heads a shake — They’ve got to look at different ways of dealing with this.”
Lawyer Prabjot Singh, legal counsel for the Sikh Federation Canada, said while the deportations are one step forward, they do not address serious concerns about transparency that have been raised by the community.
“Regardless of how many individuals get deported without an explanation or actual public investigation, the community is not going to be reassured that we’re any safer than we were before,” Singh said in an interview with CBC News, noting that a fundamental problem for him is that he believes the immigration enforcement process is a black box.
“Because if two individuals got deported, another 50 get deported tomorrow, there’s nothing to say that the people who are behind these individuals, orchestrating this violence, won’t just find somebody else to prey on.”
Predatory network
Investigators said they found that criminal networks recruit newly-arrived, young South Asian workers and students, not just as extorters or perpetrators of violence, but also as participants in less overt criminal activities.
“Do not let these criminals steal your future,” Gill said, issuing a message to those who may be vulnerable to recruitment.
“They offer a false sense of belonging, but the reality [is] they see you as disposable tools. They will pose as your brothers, but make no mistake, they are your bosses. You will have the least amount to gain, and you carry the greatest risk.”
Singh said there can be multiple factors at play which can lead to someone becoming involved with a criminal organization.
“People who are vulnerable for a number of different reasons, whether it’s their immigration status [or] whether it’s their financial situation, are vulnerable to being preyed on by criminal networks as well as other nefarious actors, including foreign governments that may use opportunities or vulnerabilities to coerce or incentivize individuals to engage in illegal conduct targeting specific communities,” he said.
“It’s really important to actually talk about this issue publicly. … Sunlight is the best disinfectant to actually get to the root of what’s going on here and who’s behind all of these attacks that have really been preying on the community.”
