{"id":129019,"date":"2026-07-08T17:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T12:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=129019"},"modified":"2026-07-08T17:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T12:24:15","slug":"international-sting-arrests-24-over-india-based-organised-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129019\/","title":{"rendered":"International sting arrests 24 over India-based organised crime"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Web desk(National Times)- An international operation against Indian organised crime groups has led to 24 arrests, US officials said on Tuesday, including in connection with the assassination in Canada of a prominent Sikh figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The sting involved law enforcement officials operating in the United States, Canada and Europe, who had together been probing crime syndicates that engage in racketeering, targeted killings, shootings, extortion and drug trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dozens of people have been charged, including two who US officials say ran their global criminal syndicates while in prison in India. All but 10 of them are now in custody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTransnational criminal gangs who spread fear, drugs, and violence will face the full force of justice and the weight of the federal government,\u201d said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among the crimes alleged in indictments unveiled Tuesday is the 2023&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1865374\">killing<\/a>&nbsp;of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent campaigner for \u201cKhalistan\u201d \u2014a separatist movement that seeks an independent homeland for Sikhs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lawrence Bishnoi, 33, of Punjab \u2014 whose organisation is&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1865402\">designated&nbsp;<\/a>as a terrorist enterprise in Canada \u2014 is charged with ordering the killing from his Indian prison cell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Officials say that in public, Bishnoi billed himself as a deeply religious \u201cpatriot,\u201d but used this image to recruit members and associates to his crime syndicate in India, the United States, and elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In private, they say, he presided over a sweeping criminal enterprise that spanned multiple continents, personally directing political assassinations, murders, shootings, extortion, kidnappings, drug trafficking, human smuggling, and other crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Also charged is Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, 38, of Punjab, India, a gangster&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-cdca\/pr\/international-crackdown-india-based-organized-crime-gangs-results-24-arrests-us-canada\">imprisoned&nbsp;<\/a>in India who is an associate-turned-rival of Bishnoi. Bhagwanpuria founded his own crime gang that now has over 1,000 members across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bhagwanpuria is charged alongside 16 other defendants with operating a criminal enterprise that engaged in murder-for-hire, drug trafficking, kidnappings, extortion, weapons trafficking, and other crimes around the world, including in the United States and Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ravinder Singh Dhanda, 57, of Vancouver, Canada, is one of 11 people&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-cdca\/pr\/international-crackdown-india-based-organized-crime-gangs-results-24-arrests-us-canada\">charged<\/a>&nbsp;with a massive drug smuggling operation that authorities say saw them import hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine each week from the US into Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cToday\u2019s coordinated operation strikes at the heart of three brutal transnational organisations that have terrorised families, exploited communities, and stolen lives through ruthless acts of violence in the US and abroad,\u201d said Patrick Grandy, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI\u2019s Los Angeles Field Office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Web desk(National Times)- An international operation against Indian organised crime groups has led to 24 arrests, US officials said on Tuesday, including in connection with the assassination in Canada of a prominent Sikh figure. The sting involved law enforcement officials operating in the United States, Canada and Europe, who had together been probing crime syndicates [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>International sting arrests 24 over India-based organised crime - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129019\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"International sting arrests 24 over India-based organised crime - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Web desk(National Times)- An international operation against Indian organised crime groups has led to 24 arrests, US officials said on Tuesday, including in connection with the assassination in Canada of a prominent Sikh figure. The sting involved law enforcement officials operating in the United States, Canada and Europe, who had together been probing crime syndicates [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129019\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-08T12:24:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-08T12:24:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-8-8.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129019\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129019\/\",\"name\":\"International sting arrests 24 over India-based organised crime - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129019\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129019\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-8-8.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-08T12:24:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-08T12:24:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129019\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129019\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129019\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-8-8.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-8-8.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129019\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"International sting arrests 24 over India-based organised crime\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"International sting arrests 24 over India-based organised crime - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129019\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"International sting arrests 24 over India-based organised crime - Nation","og_description":"Web desk(National Times)- An international operation against Indian organised crime groups has led to 24 arrests, US officials said on Tuesday, including in connection with the assassination in Canada of a prominent Sikh figure. 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