A few days after a Public Security Forum took place in Surrey, BC, to address the crime addressed to the business owners of South Asia, Prime Minister David Eby said he wants a gang based in India to declare a terrorist organization in Canada.
Police have said that members of the community of southern Asia are being extorted of cash under threat of death or violence and the Lawrence Bishnoi gang has been linked to some of those threats.
According to the Local Police, there have been 10 extortion reports in Surrey in the last six months. Some of those investigations “go beyond borders”, Chief const. Said Norm Lipinski.
Eby said it is a problem of great concern in BC, but also in Alberta and Ontario, where India gangs are operating.
He said Tuesday that he would write to Prime Minister Mark Carney to ask that the gang receives the terrorist designation “to allow the police to use the necessary tools to investigate.”
The Federal Government took similar measures against seven criminal organizations, including posters and street gangs involved in Fentanyl traffic. Among them are the posters of Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa, two of the largest and most powerful organized crime groups in Mexico.
The community members gathered in Surrey last weekend to talk about extortion and public safety.
Surrey’s businessman, SáSH Kumar, said he has received threats that require $ 2 million, and the companies with which he is associated have been the goal of shooting three times in recent weeks.
An owner of a Surrey business that says that it has been the goal of shooting related to extortion organized a public security forum this weekend. Representatives of all levels of government attended to listen to public concerns. As Sohrab Sandhu reports, the City Council occurs after an increase in the threats of extortion reported addressed to the community of southern Asia.
Canadian police sources told CBC News that the Bishnoi gang is one of several criminal companies in northern India that have spread to North America in recent years. The founder of the group, Lawrence Bishnoi, 32, has been in Indian prisons since 2014.
The Indian media have described extortion as one of the largest sources of income of the gang, both at home and abroad.
