Ottawa: +Seventeen male suspects, many of whom came to Canada from India on student visas and temporary work permits, have been criminally charged following a sweeping investigation into violent extortion rings targeting the South Asian community in the Greater Toronto Area, police say.
Peel Regional Police announced the arrests on Monday, following a joint investigation involving provincial, federal and U.S. authorities that began in December, 2025.
Investigators said several of the men arrested in recent weeks are part of a group known as the Four Brothers gang.
Police have laid more than 100 charges, including 75 firearm offences, 11 extortion-related charges and two arson charges.
The accused have no ties to the Lawrence Bishnoi Gang, the notorious India-based gang that has been linked to other extortion cases and was deemed a terrorist group in 2025 by federal officials, said Detective Sergeant Brian Lorette of Peel’s extortion task force.
Officials told reporters that extortion schemes targeting the South Asian community are too prevalent in Canada – and even causing some immigrant entrepreneurs to consider leaving the country. Authorities said they are eyeing other potential busts and will seek to c urb extortion by moving to deport perpetrators.
“Our message today is clear: People must abide by the laws and terms of their immigration status,” Canada Border Services Agency president Erin O’Gorman told reporters at a Monday’s press conference.
“Coming to Canada on a work or student permit is a privilege and individuals who are found to be involved in these activities will be removed from the country.”
Two B.C.-based suspects and a man in California were also arrested in the alleged scheme. But charging documents filed in court say that 12 of the 17 arrested suspects were living in Brampton, a large suburb north of Toronto.
Six of the people charged in the investigation may face immigration action, including possible removal from the country after their criminal cases are finished, said Ms. O’Gorman.
At Monday’s news conference, police showed videos of several Toronto-area shootings where masked gunmen were caught by doorbell cameras getting out of vehicles and firing at homes.
No one was hurt in these shootings, but hundreds of bullets were fired, police said. Cellphone and ballistics evidence was amassed by Peel Regional Police and the Ontario Provincial Police. The two police services have recently merged task forces they each formed to respond to alleged violent extortion in the neighbouring communities of Brampton and Caledon.
Staff Sergeant Lindsey Houghton, a spokesperson for the municipal police force in Vancouver’s suburb of Surrey, said his service helped the Peel-led task force by passing along information and intelligence on the suspects.
“We’ve been saying all along that this is a trans-provincial, cross-border issue – much like other gang activity – these people are transient, they move around,” he said.
In recent years, politicians such as Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown and B.C. Premier David Eby have highlighted the growing wave of extortion violence targeting Canada’s South Asian community, while appealing to the federal government for new laws and funds to deal with such crimes.
“I hope this sends a signal that this is no longer a revenue tool for organized crime,” Mr. Brown said Monday.
Ms. O’Gorman, the CBSA president, told reporters that federal immigration laws allow her agency to try to deport criminal suspects regardless of whether or not they are convicted in criminal courts.
She noted that CBSA also detained six additional men for alleged immigration violations. Three of these individuals have already been removed, two are in custody and one has been ordered released by a tribunal, she said.
Police said that they asked the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to arrest a California-based 22-year-old who allegedly had a stolen firearm and was tied to an extortion incident in Ontario.
Court filings in the Eastern District of California show that an Indian national by the same name is currently seeking bail from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention.
The civilian chair of the Peel Regional Police board stressed that the extortion victims in such cases are almost always immigrants.
“Some of our friends that have come here to Canada to start a new life and start a new business and work hard, are now talking about leaving Canada,” said Nando Iannicca.
He said several entrepreneurs are now thinking of uprooting their Canadian businesses “to somewhere they think crimes will be enforced more vigorously.”
