Police said the financial needs of different victims vary. (representative)
Toronto:
A dedicated Canadian police task force has arrested five people of Indian origin, including two women, in connection with extortion and gun-related crimes targeting the South Asian business community in the Greater Toronto Area.
The Peel Regional Police Extortion Investigation Task Force (EITF), with support from the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), executed a search warrant and arrested four individuals: Gagan Ajit Singh, 23, Anmoldeep Singh, 23, Hashmeet Kaur, Iyamjot Kaur, 21, 25, and Arundeep Thind, 39, a regional police news release on Wednesday said.
Gagan Ajit Singh, Hashmeet Kaur and Iyamjot Kaur belong to the Brampton area, while Anmoldeep Singh belongs to Mississauga. They were charged with racketeering, unauthorized possession of a firearm, unauthorized possession of a prohibited or restricted weapon and fraud. A fifth suspect, Arundeep Thind, of no fixed address, was charged with racketeering.
Peel Regional Police established the EITF in December in response to a wave of South Asian business owners reporting that they and their families were being threatened with violence if they didn’t pay up, CBC News reported.
Superintendent Shelley Thompson, who heads the department, said at a news conference Wednesday that a total of 24 charges have been filed in connection with 29 extortion attempts being investigated.
Thompson said nine of the incidents involved shots being fired at unoccupied businesses, the Toronto Star reported. However, there were no reports of injuries related to the shooting.
She further said the targeted businesses varied but included restaurants and bakeries, trucking and transportation companies and independent used car dealers, all of which were owned by South Asians. Explaining their modus operandi, Thompson said the owners were contacted via phone, social media applications or video calling services such as WhatsApp.
Thompson said each victim’s financial requirements vary, but the perpetrators will always ask for cash or a transfer of Canadian dollars or Indian rupees.
She said law enforcement in Edmonton, British Columbia’s Lower Mainland and several U.S. jurisdictions are investigating similar extortion attempts.
She said Task Force Peel is in contact with police departments at all of those locations, as well as police agencies in India.
“There is currently no information linking the extortion attempts in Peel to broader Indian organized crime,” Thompson said, adding that the possibility was being actively investigated.
“One of the reasons we’re holding this (press conference) is to get the message out to the community that we’re looking for,” she said. Investigators believe there may be more victims.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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