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US and Canadian authorities described the joint effort as a landmark success in neutralising modern borderless crime structures
The first indictment details the operations of the Bishnoi group, asserting that 33-year-old Lawrence Bishnoi managed a sophisticated transnational criminal enterprise from his jail cell in India using smuggled mobile phones and secure internet protocols. File images
A massive, multi-nation law enforcement operation spanning the United States, Canada, and Europe has dismantled three global organised crime networks rooted in “India-based” syndicates. Dubbed “Operation Hard Ball”, the coordinated crackdown resulted in the arrest of 24 defendants facing federal charges for an array of violent crimes, extortion plots, and international narcotics trafficking. Crucially, the unsealed American indictments explicitly link the enterprise of imprisoned gangster Lawrence Bishnoi to the high-profile June 18, 2023, killing of alleged Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a temple in Surrey, British Columbia.
The sweeping federal investigation targeted 37 total defendants across three distinct indictments unsealed by the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. Law enforcement executed dozens of search warrants across Sacramento, Los Angeles, and British Columbia, leading to the seizure of approximately 1,000 kilograms of cocaine, one kilogram of heroin, a dozen firearms, and substantial cash reserves. While 11 defendants were apprehended in California and others across Indiana and Georgia, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) executed provisional arrest warrants to take three individuals into custody in British Columbia for subsequent extradition to the United States. Concurrently, international partners secured an arrest in Spain, while ten fugitives remain at large across Europe, India, and North America.
The first indictment details the operations of the Bishnoi group, asserting that 33-year-old Lawrence Bishnoi managed a sophisticated transnational criminal enterprise from his jail cell in India using smuggled mobile phones and secure internet protocols. According to prosecutors, Bishnoi and his high-ranking North American lieutenant, Satinderjeet Singh, popularly known as Goldy Brar, ordered the 2023 hit on Nijjar, who is designated in court documents by the initials “H.S.N.” The syndicate, which was formally classified as a terrorist entity by the Canadian government in late 2025, reportedly weaponised social media and encrypted messaging platforms to extort millions of dollars from affluent victims within the Indian diaspora, including targets in Los Angeles who were threatened with severe violence.
A separate seven-count indictment focuses on a distinct transnational network founded by Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, a former associate turned rival of Bishnoi, who is also currently incarcerated in an Indian facility. The Bhagwanpuria gang, estimated to command over 1,000 global associates, allegedly engaged in broad-scale narcotics transport, weapons dealing, and murder-for-hire schemes. Federal prosecutors allege the network expanded its reach by generating fraudulent information to manipulate local law enforcement processes abroad, using false accusations to trigger extortion plots against perceived rivals and their families living as far apart as Punjab and Ohio.
The third indictment targets a massive commercial logistics network responsible for smuggling hundreds of kilograms of high-purity cocaine and methamphetamine across the international border each week. Led by Vancouver-based Ravinder Singh Dhanda, the drug distribution ring allegedly negotiated complex transit logistics with major North American cartels, using long-haul semi-trucks and commercial agricultural vehicles to move narcotics from Southern California hubs into Canada. As part of the synchronised global raids, tactical teams searched multiple Canadian properties, including a residence belonging to a relative of Dhanda on Cliff Avenue.
US and Canadian authorities described the joint effort as a landmark success in neutralising modern borderless crime structures. Senior officials from the FBI, the Los Angeles Police Departmentand the RCMP emphasised that the true measure of the operation lies in its systemic disruption of networks that capitalised on fear to exploit diaspora communities. Defendants convicted under these federal racketeering, extortion, and narcotics distribution charges face mandatory minimum sentences ranging from ten years to maximum terms of life imprisonment in federal penitentiaries.
About the Author
Siddhant Mishra is a Senior Special Correspondent at CNN-News18, covering foreign affairs and international relations. With over 12 years of experience in journalism, he has also reported extensively …Read More
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