British Columbia’s second-largest city has created a $250,000 fund to dole out rewards to people with evidence that helps stop the continuing extortion of South Asian businesspeople.
Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke and the city’s police chief announced the fund Monday as they detailed the latest effort to stop the extortions, which she characterized as “frightening and unacceptable.”
The Surrey Police Service said it is investigating 44 extortion cases, including 27 that involved shootings of businesses, homes and vehicles. The agency didn’t specify the time period for these crimes, but noted they peaked in June.
Video posted to social media in July showed the windows of Kap’s Cafe riddled with bullet holes. The business is owned by Indian celebrity Kapil Sharma. The restaurant was shot at again the following month.
“I want to speak directly to those who know who is behind these extortions. Now, now is the time to come forward,” Ms. Locke said. “And for those who have committed these crimes, know this – you will be caught, you will be prosecuted and you will be held accountable.”
B.C. police arrest two suspects over extortion involving South Asian business community
Ms. Locke said the city needs help from higher levels of government as it tackles the extortion attempts, which have also been documented in Ontario and Alberta.
“We all have heard very many times that this is a transnational situation that we’re dealing with in Surrey and right across this country,” she said. “It’s really time that we looked at this in a much broader perspective, nationally and provincially.”
The mayor did not outline exactly what kind of help she is looking for.
Surrey Police Service Chief Constable Norm Lipinski said his force’s dedicated team of investigators has so far only served search warrants and identified a range of suspects.
Now, he said, they need help from the public.
“We know that there are people out there who have information about these crimes and who is behind them,” Chief Lipinski said.
He said the reward money could be divided up based on assessments of the information that people provide – but only if it leads directly to the identification, prosecution and conviction of suspects.
The B.C. government provided $100,000 in June to help Crime Stoppers run a 60-day campaign to encourage people to come forward in response to what it described as a rise in extortion threats against the South Asian community.
Chief Lipinski said police had not received any “actionable intelligence” from that campaign, but he believed the new fund would motivate people, given the way “money talks” in the criminal underworld.
South Asian communities grapple with extortion threats in B.C., Ontario, Alberta
Police in B.C., Alberta and Ontario first started noticing a wave of these extortions in the fall of 2023.
At the time, police said the extortionists demanded “protection money” from would-be victims, most of whom are members of the South Asian business community. Some have seen their businesses targeted with gunfire after refusing to pay up.
Superintendent Adam MacIntosh, the leader of the federal RCMP’s Cyber and Financial Investigation Teams in the Pacific Region, echoed Chief Lipinski’s plea for people not to pay if they are targeted for extortion. After they refuse, he said, they should report it to their local police right away.
To date, he said, no killings in Canada have been linked by police to these extortions.
“When people do pay, then, of course, that drives and fuels the success of the organized-crime group to continue doing extortion,” Supt. MacIntosh said in a phone interview. “And so when it’s no longer lucrative – and we’re doing our jobs as police formulating charges, suppression through enforcement – you’re going to see a reduction.”
At the start of 2024, the RCMP created a federal team to help various municipal departments and provincial forces, such as the Ontario Provincial Police, investigate the often-complicated cases. These extortions are mainly done by organized-crime groups and have mostly targeted Sikh Canadians, said Supt. MacIntosh, who leads this federal group.
Police elsewhere have accused the India-based Lawrence Bishnoi gang of orchestrating some of these extortions.
B.C. Premier David Eby and others have called for the group to be declared a terrorist organization.
With a report from The Canadian Press
