37 charged after global Indian crime syndicates tied to Canada assassination
Feds target India-based organized crime in El Monte
The charges include the June 2023 assassination of a prominent Indian political and religious leader outside a Canadian Sikh temple, alongside widespread extortion, shootings, and large-scale international narcotics trafficking.
LOS ANGELES - In a massive international sweep code-named "Operation Hard Ball," 37 operatives tied to global Indian crime syndicates have been charged across three continents, directly linking the violent network to the brazen 2023 political assassination of a prominent religious leader outside a Canadian temple.
What we know:
Three separate federal indictments unsealed in Los Angeles outline a vast network of racketeering, targeted killings, and drug smuggling. The operations were heavily orchestrated by imprisoned gangsters utilizing smuggled communication devices, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The unsealed indictments reveal a highly organized, multi-continental network where imprisoned kingpins seamlessly collaborated with international cells to execute violent plots and manage lucrative smuggling pipelines.
At the center of the conspiracy is the Bishnoi enterprise, led by 33-year-old Lawrence Bishnoi, who managed to direct a global syndicate from his Indian prison cell using smuggled contraband cellphones.
Alongside his North American lieutenant, Satinderjeet Singh (known as "Goldy Brar"), Bishnoi allegedly ordered the June 18, 2023, assassination of prominent Indian religious and political leader "H.S.N.," who was gunned down outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia—an act that contributed to Canada designating the enterprise a terrorist entity in September 2025.
While the Bishnoi gang dominated headlines with high-profile violence, an associate-turned-rival group known as the Bhagwanpuria gang weaponized institutional corruption.
Commandered by imprisoned gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, this 1,000-member transnational syndicate specialized in murder-for-hire, weapons trafficking, and complex extortion schemes that reached families in California and Ohio by colluding with corrupt law enforcement officers in India to fabricate criminal charges against domestic rivals.
Financing this global reign of terror required a sophisticated logistics machine, which relied heavily on specialized drug distribution networks.
Ravinder Singh Dhanda, operating under the alias "John Wick" from Vancouver, allegedly brokered international smuggling services for bulk quantities of narcotics across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
The scale of this pipeline is underscored by massive law enforcement seizures throughout the investigation, which have netted roughly 1,000 kilograms of cocaine, a kilogram of heroin, a dozen firearms, and $40,000 in cash.
These major disruptions included halting long-haul semi-trucks bound for Canada and intercepting hundreds of kilograms of cocaine that the syndicates had actively stolen from rival drug gangs in Los Angeles.
In total, 22 people were arrested, seven in Southern California.
What we don't know:
The identities of certain targeted victims, including the assassinated leader "H.S.N." and an extorted individual in India identified as "B.S.," remain shielded by court-ordered pseudonyms.
Timeline:
- June 18, 2023: Gunmen assassinate prominent political and religious leader H.S.N. outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia.
- November 2023: Bishnoi claims responsibility for a shooting at the Vancouver residence of a prominent Indian actor and singer.
- March 2024 – July 2025: The Bishnoi enterprise steals approximately 520 kilograms of cocaine from rival drug trafficking groups in the greater Los Angeles area.
- June 2025: Law enforcement intercepts an attempted shipment of 99.2 kilograms of cocaine and one kilogram of heroin linked to the Bhagwanpuria network.
- September 2025: The Canadian government officially designates the Bishnoi enterprise as a terrorist entity.
- December 2025 – January 2026: Bishnoi, Brar, and Godara attempt to extort $5 million from a victim residing in Thousand Oaks, California.
- April 2026: Bhagwanpuria syndicate member Gurlal Singh threatens a victim in California, feeding information to a corrupt official in India to instigate false murder charges against the victim's family.
- June 23–July 1, 2026: Grand juries return three separate federal indictments against members of the Dhanda, Bhagwanpuria, and Bishnoi organizations.
What they're saying:
U.S. and Canadian officials emphasized that the sweeping operation underscores an unprecedented level of international collaboration against cross-border violence.
"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 organizations wherever they operate. There is no safe harbor for these thugs."
"Today’s coordinated operation strikes at the heart of three brutal transnational organizations that have terrorized families, exploited communities, and stolen lives through ruthless acts of violence in the U.S. and abroad," said Patrick Grandy, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office.
"The true measure of this operation isn’t found in the arrests or the seizures alone," said Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell. "It’s found in what they represent: a united commitment between the LAPD and our federal and international partners to relentlessly pursue those who threaten our communities."
"Together, we disrupted the operations of organized criminals who used murder, cruelty and fear to extort and control people in both Canada and the United States," said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Mike Duheme. "We won’t pause for long to reflect on the work it took to get this job done – we’ll keep doing what we do best to preserve public safety in Canada, in the United States, and around the world."
What's next:
The defendants arrested within the United States are scheduled to make their initial appearances in federal court.
If convicted, many face mandatory minimum prison sentences ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment in federal prison.
The investigation remains ongoing as the FBI, LAPD, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)—which is running a parallel probe into South Asian organized crime—continue to track down remaining associates.
Officials will release more details during a press conference at 10:30 a.m.
The Source: This report is directly sourced from unsealed federal grand jury indictments returned to the United States District Court between June 23 and July 1, alongside official statements provided by leadership at the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office, the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Details regarding specific extortions, narcotics seizures, and timelines were extracted entirely from multi-agency investigative findings compiled under the federal Homeland Security Task Force initiative.