Surrey South Asian Community Gathers To Take On Foreign-Based Extortion Racket That Has Businesses Trembling

The South Asian community in Surrey gathered in large numbers Saturday afternoon with police, politicians, community leaders and business people to take on the foreign-based extortion racket that has local businesses trembling with threatening letters and drive-by shootings and robberies at gun point. The extortion letter and threats of grave violence has gripped not only Indo-Canadian businesses in Surrey and Abbotsford but is spread across Canada including Alberta and Ontario. The Saturday’s public forum organized Satish Kumar, a Surrey business owner, who’s own son’s house was shot up recently (not known whether it was part of this extortion or some personal animosity on Kumar’s son who runs his family-owned Reflections Hall) focused on safety and what can be done to tackle this new criminal menace from foreign-based (India) criminals.

By PD Raj – Senior Reporter DESIBUZZCanada

SURREY – The South Asian community in Surrey gathered in large numbers Saturday afternoon with police, politicians, community leaders and business people to take on the foreign-based extortion racket that has local businesses trembling with threatening letters and drive-by shootings and robberies at gun point.

The extortion letter and threats of grave violence has gripped not only Indo-Canadian businesses in Surrey and Abbotsford but is spread across Canada including Alberta and Ontario.

The Saturday’s public forum organized Satish Kumar, a Surrey business owner, who’s own son’s house was shot up recently (not known whether it was part of this extortion or some personal animosity on Kumar’s son who runs his family-owned Reflections Hall) focused on safety and what can be done to tackle this new criminal menace from foreign-based (India) criminals.

Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke was among the local government officials in attendance. She spoke to the crowd about the importance of improving the city’s legal system.

“We have less prosecutors in Surrey than in most other areas, but in this case, we need a special prosecutor,” she said. “We need to take this temperature down in our city.”

Locke wrote on social media that Saturday’s meeting is proof of how widespread the extortion letters have circulated. Because of the unique and significant nature of this file, which has received national and international attention, I call on the province to appoint a Special Prosecutor.

One attendee told CityNews that while he appreciates the work the police are doing, he thinks more needs to be done to protect civilians.

“I’m an innocent, hard-working, retired person who built a house in Surrey, raised a family here and in the last two years I’ve had two drive-by shootings,” he said.

Anxieties are running high in the city due to a string of letters threatening extortion that were sent to local businesses in recent weeks.

The letters demand money in exchange for protection and have specifically targeted the city’s South Asian community.

The forum was held, in part, to help the RCMP with their continued investigation into these threats.

Speaking to attendees, Officer in Charge of the Surrey RCMP Assistant Commissioner Brian Edwards pledged to stop the extortion problem.

Edwards told the meeting that police still weren’t sure whether a string of shootings in recent weeks were linked to the extortion racket, reported Global News.

He said police were further challenged by the fact that some people have paid the extortioners.

Police have assigned 200 officers to the case, who have logged more than 20,000 hours since October, Edwards said.

Police in Surrey and Abbotsford issued public warnings in November after business owners began to receive threatening letters.

One of the letters allegedly from Lawrence Bishnoy, a jailed murderous criminal, and his gang demanded $2 million in “protection money” or the recipient would face retaliation.

Investigators confirmed they believed the suspects were linked to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, based in India.

On Dec. 28, Surrey RCMP arrested two men in their 20s in connection with extortion attempts in the Lower Mainland. They were released without charge pending further investigation.