Four thousand bucks. That is what it costs to hire a hitman to blast 14 bullet holes into a Vancouver Island home and torch the cars in the driveway.
If you thought transnational organized crime was all luxury yachts and high-stakes wire transfers, the reality playing out in Canadian immigration hearings will snap you back to earth. It is surprisingly cheap, terrifyingly disorganized at the ground level, and driven by international students desperate for cash.
Abjeet Kingra, an Indian citizen who came to Canada on a student visa in 2018, stood before the Immigration and Refugee Board. The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) wants him deported. Kingra is already serving a six-year sentence for a shooting outside the British Columbia home of Punjabi music star A.P. Dhillon.
His testimony exposes how global syndicates use insulation to run cheap, highly violent operations on Canadian soil.
The Economy of a Low Level Hit
Kingra did not plan a criminal masterpiece. He was basically broke, his moving company job in Winnipeg was dried up, and his family back home in India needed financial help. When a co-worker and friend named Vikram Sharma offered him a quick gig for cash, he took a few days to mull it over and then agreed.
The two men packed into a vehicle and drove clear across Western Canada from Manitoba to Colwood, British Columbia.
Once they arrived at the musician’s residence, the plan was simple. Sharma splashed gasoline over the vehicles in the driveway and lit them up. Kingra raised his gun and fired 14 rounds into the structure. While doing this, Kingra held up his phone and recorded a video of the chaos.
Why film it? Because Sharma's hands were full with the gasoline. The video was proof for the bosses.
A few days later, back in Manitoba, Sharma handed Kingra $4,000 in cash. Kingra testified he had no clue where the money originated. Sharma has since fled Canada and is currently wanted by the RCMP.
When cross-examined about why he was picked for the job, Kingra’s answer was blunt. “I don't know, maybe I am an idiot, that's why. I'm not that much intelligent.”
How the Bishnoi Syndicate Structurally Insulates Itself
The judge who sentenced Kingra concluded that the shooting was executed at the behest of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. This group is a notorious India-based syndicate that the Canadian government officially designated as a terrorist entity.
Kingra claims he had no idea who the Bishnoi gang even was until he saw his own handiwork splashed across the morning news channels.
This brings us to the core strategy of modern extortion operations. The hierarchy relies on total structural insulation. Jasbir Sandhu, a CBSA official at the hearing, explained that the Bishnoi syndicate runs on a strict need-to-know basis. A foot soldier only knows the person immediately above them.
- The Leader: Lawrence Bishnoi orchestrates major global operations from behind bars inside an Indian prison.
- The Lieutenants: High-ranking handlers like Goldy Brar coordinate targets via encrypted apps like WhatsApp and Signal.
- The Local Cells: Middlemen find vulnerable, cash-strapped local recruits.
- The Cut-outs: Foot soldiers carry out the actual violence, totally blind to the broader syndicate leadership.
This structure means that when a local shooter gets caught, they literally cannot flip on the bosses because they do not know who the bosses are.
Interestingly, authorities note that the attack on Dhillon's home was not a standard extortion attempt. The gang never sent a follow-up demand for cash to the singer. Instead, the hit was a message. A person who appeared in one of Dhillon’s music videos had run afoul of the gang, and the shooting proved that the syndicate could target anyone, anywhere, at any time.
The Sprawling Footprint Across Canada
This is not an isolated incident on Vancouver Island. Cities with large South Asian populations across British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario are dealing with an ongoing epidemic of extortions.
The scale of the threat is larger than most people realize. During a parallel deportation admissibility hearing for another alleged member, Jashandeep Singh, details emerged about the group’s brazen attitude toward Canadian law enforcement.
Detective Constable Kevin St. Louis testified that back in August 2025, the Abbotsford Police Department received a direct letter from the Bishnoi gang. The letter explicitly warned police that the group commanded upwards of 1,000 foot soldiers across Canada who were fully prepared to execute shootings. The letter stated that every local business needed to pay their "tax."
The extortion method follows a predictable, violent rhythm.
- The Demand: A wealthy South Asian business owner receives a WhatsApp message demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars.
- The Warning: If the target ignores the message, young recruits are dispatched to shoot at the business or the owner's home in the dead of night.
- The Alternative: In some cases, the gang reverses the order—they shoot first to establish terror, then send the text message demanding the tax.
Fractures and Geopolitical Complications
The picture gets even muddier for Canadian investigators. Detective St. Louis noted that the extortion landscape is fracturing. While the Bishnoi gang remains a dominant threat, internal rifts have caused the network to split into multiple competing cells, all running the exact same extortion plays against local businesses.
Adding to the complexity is a layer of international espionage. The RCMP has publicly alleged that the Indian government has used the Bishnoi gang’s network to advance state interests inside Canada through targeted violence.
The most prominent example linked to this network is the June 2023 assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia. Nijjar was a prominent leader in the Khalistan movement, which campaigns for an independent Sikh state in India. Canadian officials allege that Indian state agents used Bishnoi's local criminal infrastructure to organize and execute that hit.
The violence continues to claim lives within the criminal ecosystem itself. Just earlier this year, a high-ranking Bishnoi handler named Gurvikramjeet Singh Warring, known on the streets as "Sam Canada," was shot and killed in Surrey. Social media posts from rival gang factions immediately claimed responsibility, revealing that Sam Canada was also allegedly tied to cricket match-fixing networks across the country.
What Happens From Here
The Immigration and Refugee Board is scheduled to drop its decision regarding Abjeet Kingra’s deportation order on Monday. Even if the deportation order is granted, Kingra will have to finish serving his current six-year sentence in Canada before he can be sent back to India. He is also awaiting trial for a separate August 2024 shooting incident in Surrey.
For business owners and community members living under the shadow of these protection rackets, the primary defense is immediate, coordinated transparency.
If you or someone you know runs a business and receives an anonymous demand for cash or a protection tax, do not delete the messages and do not negotiate. Block the numbers, preserve the screenshots, and immediately report the incident to your local police department’s specialized extortion task force. Law enforcement agencies across Western Canada have unified their intelligence networks specifically to trace the digital footprints of these overseas handlers, and early reporting is the most effective way to cut off the local supply chain of foot soldiers before the violence hits your front door.
