| Indo-Canadian organized crime | |
| Ethnicity: | Mostly Punjabi-Canadian, other ethnicities include Indo-Fijian and Indo-Caribbean Canadians[1] [2] |
| Founding Location: | British Columbia |
| Years Active: | 1980s–present |
| Territory: | Principle location: Punjab, India Controlled Territory: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan,Manitoba,Ontario,Quebec,Yukon,Washington,Alaska Areas of Influence: Nova Scotia,California,Oregon,Minnesota,New Jersey,New York,Texas, Florida,Illinois,Michigan,Arizona,United Kingdom,Australia,[3] New Zealand, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Hong Kong, Italy, Greece, Russia, Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Costa Rica, El SalvadorMinor Connections: Spain, Germany, France, Africa, India, United Arab Emirates |
| Criminal Activities: | Assassination, drug trafficking, money laundering, murder, weapon trafficking, illegal gambling, robbery, chop shop, assault, loan sharking, racketeering, extortion, contract killing, kidnapping |
Indo-Canadian organized crime is made up predominantly of young adults and teenagers of Indian ethnic, cultural and linguistic background. Collectively, these groups are among the top 5 major homegrown organized crime hierarchy across the nation in Canada coming in 3rd place, after the Asian Triads and White biker gangs.[4] The 2004 RCMP British Columbia Annual Police Report ranked them third in terms of organization and sophistication in British Columbia, ranked behind outlaw motorcycle clubs and aforementioned Chinese criminal organizations such as the Triads drug clans.
Some of the young men involved today in crime may come from first-generation backgrounds but the majority are second and third-generation Punjabi-Canadians. These individuals were initially involved in petty street crimes, but older and more calculating criminals from the community quickly saw opportunities to make a profit from the situation. Often using clan-based ties and connections in their ancestral homeland, mainly in the parts of the Punjab, organized criminals from there were able to build criminal empires making use of young street gangs. During the period from 2006 to 2014, 34South Asians made up 21.3% of gang related deaths in British Columbia.
In the 1980s, there was a violent struggle to have the Punjab break away from India to found a new state to be called Khalistan ("the land of the pure"). In June 1984, the Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, had the Indian Army storm the most sacred site for Sikhs, the Golden Temple or the Darbar Sahib ("abode of God") in Amritsar, which had been taken over by armed Sikh separatists. During the ensuing battle between 5–8 June 1984, the Darbar Sahib was severely damaged with over 492 deaths. The incident was seen by many Sikhs around the world as a massacre and a declaration of war by India upon their community.[5] [6] In Canada, some members in the Sikh community started to engage in revolutionary activities in support of Khalistan. Though the intention was initially political, some of the activists also started to engage in organized crime as a way to raise money for the struggle. Ranjit "Ron" Dosanjh, the president of the Vancouver chapter of the separatist International Sikh Youth Federation, became the leader alongside his brother Jimsher "Jimmy" Dosanjh of the Dosanjh gang.
One man who led the gangster lifestyle was Gurmit Singh Dhak, leader of the once Dhak gang. After being arrested in the early 2000's with kilos of drugs and a loaded firearm, Dhak was contacted by the Odd Squad of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police about making an anti-gang video for high school students. In a video made in June 2010, Dhak stated the swaggering, macho aggression of the gangsters hid a deep insecurity and fear as he stated that to live the life of a gangster was to live in fear, never knowing when someone would try to kill him and never knowing who to trust. Dhak stated: "...if I could turn back time, I would never do it again. Every day I've got to look over my shoulder; I've got to worry about my family, I've got to worry about, if I jump out of my car, am I going to get shot? Or, you know, I could be walking in the mall and walking out and getting shot. I don't know...Oh, I want to get out. But it's too late now to get out. I have too many enemies". On October 16, 2010, Dhak was found shot dead in the driver's seat of his black BMW SUV, which was parked in the parking lot of the Metrotown Mall in Burnaby. His murder remains unsolved.
Rivals have posted rap songs advocating murder such as a young man from Surrey, alleged to have committed two murders and charged by RCMP, posted an online tribute to the murdered Gavinder Grewal, the deceased founder of the Brothers Keepers gang.[7] Tyrel Nguyen Quesnelle, using his rapper name "T-Sav", boasted in his rap song My Life that he was willing to both kill and die for his deceased gang-leader, Grewal.[7] T-sav rapped in his song: "They took GG from us, realest trapper ever living. I swear we riding out for you till they all ain't living." and "I caught my first body when you was in school...Brothers Keepers, that's a life contract, little nigga."[7] Police in the Lower Mainland maintain that songs glorifying violence and criminality while boasting about drug dealing and murder are increasing tensions between gangs.[7]
The Brothers Keepers are not the only gang threatening their enemies musically as in the fall of 2019, after he was released from a jail, the rapper Lolo Lanski posted his song Dedman to SoundCloud and YouTube.[7] As of January 24, 2020, the song had 80,000 downloads.[7] The song denounces the Brother Keepers and describes how Grewal was shot inside his penthouse home in 2017.[7] The lyrics of Dedman admiringly declare that the killer "sent lead to his head" and the assassination was "trying to put a BK [Brother's Keeper] on TV."[7] In a bizarre note, Dedman also includes an audio excerpt of the 911 call made by Grewal's brother Manbir after he found his brother's corpse in the penthouse.[7] The use of rap in the present underworld conflict between the Brothers Keepers vs. both the Kang group and the United Nations gang is new, but police in B.C. have stated they have witnessed an overlap between rap and the underworld subcultures before.[7]
A major drug bust conducted in April 2021 broke up an Indo-Canadian trafficking network primarily based in Brampton, Ontario. Of the 28 arrested, the majority were India-born Punjabi men. Police seized $2.3 million worth of drugs including 10 kilograms of cocaine, eight kilograms of ketamine, three kilograms of heroin and 2.5 kilograms of opium. Additionally, 48 firearms and $730,000 in Canadian currency were seized as part of the bust.[8] This criminal network was reported by York Regional Police, Toronto Police Services, Peel Regional Police, RCMP and the DEA to operate as far as Western Canada, California and India.[9]
Gangs and criminal organizations within the Punjabi-Canadian community have also been noted for adopting the rigid structure and rules of the Punjabi Mafia, with strict rules against talking to police and against any kind of drug use amongst members and associates aside from alcohol or cigarettes use, though excessive use of these substances is also allegedly met with punishment within the gangs.[10] [11] [12]
The main trade of the Indo-Canadian crime groups are murder-for-hire operations, along with arms trafficking, racketeering, extortion, assassinations, and the trafficking of cocaine, heroin, MDMA, methamphetamine and cannabis.[13] [14] Punjabi-Canadian crime bosses use their family connections in the Punjab to bring in heroin from the "Golden Crescent" nations of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran where much of the world's heroin is produced. Punjabi-Canadian crime groups widened the reach of their activities and delved into other crimes such as kidnapping, loan sharking, money laundering and chop shops.[15] Organized gangs from the community have used the local transportation business, setting up connections with Mexican drug cartels and using truck drivers to smuggle cocaine from Mexico into the United States and Canada, in exchange for MDMA, Methamphetamine, Cannabis (drug) and hashish for the cartels.[16] The profits of drug dealing allow for contract killing.
Most Indo-Canadian crime groups in Ontario and Alberta are either several clans controlled by one family with friends and relatives associated with the group or sometimes networks of truck drivers involved in cross-border drug smuggling that are classified as gangs. The largest organized Indo-Canadian gang presence is in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.[17]
The largest crime groups are: