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- Federal, local and international authorities said they have arrested 24 alleged members of transnational organized crime groups based in India.
- Among those charged is Lawrence Bishnoi, 33, who allegedly personally directed crimes from his jail cell in India.
- Prosecutors say Bishnoi was behind the June 2023 assassination of a Sikh religious and political leader in British Columbia, Canada.
Federal, local and international authorities have charged 37 alleged members of India-based transnational organized crime groups, including some who are believed to be tied to the 2023 assassination of a Sikh activist outside a Canadian temple.
As part of “Operation Hard Ball,” authorities arrested 24 people in the United States, Canada and Europe, including 11 in California, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles. Three separate federal indictments unsealed Tuesday lay out alleged crimes across California, including kidnapping, murder and drug trafficking.
Across the globe, prosecutors said, the organizations preyed on lower-income members of the Indian community, either pressing them into service of the gangs or extorting them. In one case, a police chief based in India demanded a $400,000 ransom from a Los Angeles family after threatening to falsely charge one of their India-based relatives with murder, prosecutors said.
Thirty-seven people have been charged in the Central District of California, according to the indictments, including 15 accused of being in the U.S. illegally. Authorities said they are searching for seven fugitives in the U.S., two in India and one in Europe.
Authorities said they had seized approximately 1,000 kilograms of cocaine and 1 kilogram of heroin, along with $40,000 in cash and a dozen firearms. On Tuesday, authorities spread dozens of bricks of cocaine, rifles and machine guns on a table as they discussed the operation. A total of 23 search warrants were executed in the Sacramento area and 11 in the L.A.-area.
“These criminal organizations have engaged in widespread violence, including targeted killings, extortions and kidnappings,” said First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli . “The organizations have preyed in particular on communities in the United States and Canada with ties to India.”
Among those charged is Lawrence Bishnoi, 33, who allegedly personally directed political assassinations, murders, shootings, extortion, kidnappings, drug trafficking, human smuggling and other crimes from his jail cell in India. Prosecutors described him as the head of one of the organizations.
Bishnoi and a childhood friend, Satinderjeet Singh, allegedly ordered the June 2023 assassination of a prominent religious and political leader from the Punjab state of India who was living in British Columbia. Although authorities identified the victim only by his initials, H.S.N., media reports identify him as Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Satinderjeet Singh remains a fugitive and has ties to Sacramento, Fresno, Canada, India and Mexico, according to a wanted flier distributed by the FBI.
“The gang used this assassination and other high profile acts of violence to terrorize Sikh and other Indian communities and they used acts of violence to legitimize and bolster widespread extortion schemes,” Essayli said.
A co-conspirator of the group allegedly contacted a California resident — identified only by their initials S.S. — in Fontana, referenced the June 2023 murder and threatened to meet them at their upcoming immigration hearing.
Singh and Rohit Godara, who is also charged, allegedly claimed responsibility in a Facebook post for the December 2024 murder of a man — identified by his initials S.Y. — in Stockton. The online post allegedly warned, in Punjabi, “[a]ll our enemies, be prepared, any corner of the world you reach, we will reach there.”
The news outlet CalMatters previously identified the victim as Sunil Yadav, an Indian national and a suspected member of the Bishnoi gang.
Last fall, Harsimran Singh was well on his way to bringing 15,000 fans to Stockton for an international tournament of the ancient Indian sport Kabaddi.
Patrick Grandy, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said that for the years the Bishnoi and Bhagwanpuria organized crime groups, “have fueled violence, fear and instability within the East Indian communities throughout California and abroad.”
Another indictment charges Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, 38, a former associate of Bishnoi who allegedly developed his own independent criminal network that grew to rival Bishnoi’s gang. Bhagwanpuria allegedly oversaw and directed the global activities of the group from a jail cell in India, using contraband cellphones and other voiceover internet protocol devices, according to the indictment.
Essayli said federal authorities expect the two men held in India jails to be extradited to the U.S.
Bhagwanpuria’s group allegedly had multiple drug smuggling networks in California, each managed by a different regional leader. Drug loads — which typically contained 100 kilograms or more of cocaine or methamphetamine — were allegedly collected in Southern California in passenger vehicles and then transferred to long-haul semitrucks for transportation to the eastern U.S. or the U.S.-Canada border.
Bhagwanpuria’s group, which is said to include more than 100 members and associates in the U.S., allegedly “corrupted law enforcement officers in India and partnered with corrupt government officials, including to assist in extortion schemes,” according to the indictment. The group allegedly provided false information to law enforcement officers in India, triggering “baseless criminal proceedings as well as extortion plots by corrupt Indian law enforcement officers against perceived rivals.”
According to the indictment, in April 2026, Gurlal Singh, 22, a Stockton member of the Bhagwanpuria syndicate, threatened a victim and then provided their name to an alleged corrupt law enforcement officer in India’s Punjab state. Gurinderjit Singh, who authorities identified as a police chief, allegedly then falsely accused the victim, the victim’s father and sister of conspiring to commit murder in India.
The police chief allegedly extorted the victim and the victim’s father in connection with the pending murder case. He remains a fugitive, but Essayli said authorities plan to extradite him to the U.S. once he is arrested.
Members of Bhagwanpuria’s crime group are accused of kidnapping and assaulting an associate in California who was believed to have stolen a drug load. Another alleged member of the group, Gurdev Singh, is accused of attempting to extort a business owner while he was in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including by threatening to “put the bullets in your kids too.”
Asst. U.S. Atty. Declan Conroy, one of the main prosecutors on the case, said Singh may have used gang intermediaries to issue orders to extort the man while in ICE custody.
The indictment charging Bhagwanpuria also details members of the organized crime group selling semiautomatic rifles, a machine gun and pistols in parking lots across Southern California.
A third indictment lays out charges against Ravinder Singh Dhanda, a Canadian leader who allegedly operated a cocaine and meth distribution network that provided international smuggling services to drug traffickers in the U.S., Mexico and elsewhere. If convicted, he faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison, authorities said.