Punjabi-Canadian organized crime

Punjabi-Canadian Organized Crime or Indo-Canadian Organized Crime is made up of groups that are based in Canada and made up predominantly of young adults of Punjabi ethnic origin who are usually born into families which practice the Sikh religion.^[3][4] Collectively, these groups are in the Top 3 major homegrown organized crime problem across the nation in Canada, after the Italian-Canadian Mafia groups and Asian organized Triad crime groups. The 2004 RCMP British Columbia Annual Police Report ranked them third in terms of organization and sophistication in British Columbia, ranked behind the outlaw motorcycle clubs and aforementioned Asian criminal organizations such as the Triads drug clans.^[5]

History[]

Some of the young men involved today in crime may come from second and third-generation backgrounds but the majority are first-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.^[5] Punjabi-Canadian gang violence is still rising as statistics records show that from 2006 to 2014, 34 South Asians (disproportionally Punjabi) had been murdered by gang violence making up for 21.3% of gang deaths in British Columbia.^[6]

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 "T-Sav", boosted 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] The police in the Lower Mainland maintain that songs glorying 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 24 January 2020, the song had 80,000 downloads.^[7] The song which 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 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 subculture before.^[7]

A major drug bust conducted in April 2021 broke up a Punjabi-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]

Activities[]

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.^[9][10][11]

The main trade of the Punjabi-Canadian crime groups is the trafficking of heroin. Punjabi-Canadian crime bosses use their family connections in the Punjab to bring in the drug 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 extortion, kidnapping, money laundering and above all contract killing.^[12] Organized gangs from the community have infiltrated the local transportation business, setting up connections with Mexican drug cartels and using truck drivers to smuggle cocaine and hashish from Mexico into the United States and Canada.^[13] The profits of drug dealing allows for contract killing with the high rates of $50,000–100,000 in Canada due to the high profits earned.^{[citation needed]}

Criminal Groups[]

Most Punjabi-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 Punjabi-Canadian gang presence is in British Columbia and Alberta.^[14]

The largest Crime Groups are:

• Brothers Keepers Gang: Founded by Gavinder Singh Grewal with most of its members and leadership formerly made up the Red Scorpions leadership, but split off to its own group and allegedly targeted remaining Red Scorpions members across British Columbia cities beginning in Spring 2016 and heating up in Fall 2017.^[15][16] This organization is active mainly in Metro Vancouver but is believed to have made inroads into the Interior of British Columbia, Vancouver Island, Alberta and Ontario.^[17]

• Dhak-Duhre Group: Included the United Nations in the coalition as well and this group was alleged to be active across British Columbia.^[18][19] Although the original leaders such as Sandip Singh Duhre, Gurmit Singh Dhak and Sukhveer Singh Dhak have been killed, the associates of the murdered leaders are suspected by RCMP to remain connected to crime groups themselves.^[20] The Dhak-Duhre coalition is known to have strong ties the UN gang and is known to have waged a war against the Wolf Pack alliance, a gang alliance composed of the Independent Soldiers gang, the Red Scorpions gang and the Hells Angels.^[21]

• Dhaliwal Crime Family: Allegedly operating in Vaughan, Ontario by a family originally from Malton, Mississauga; the Dhaliwal crime family has been raided numerous times, first in 1998 for running a $16 million organized crime group engaged in everything from armed robberies to importing cocaine and heroin for trafficking, extortion, arms trafficking, warm-up thefts of cars and kidnapping rival traffickers, police alleged.^[22][23] The Dhaliwal crime family founded and led by patriarch Balwinder Singh "Bill" Dhaliwal 63, who was infamously dubbed the "King of Car Thieves" in an episode of the Canadian TV Series Masterminds. The crime family has been raided a total of three times by the RCMP and Toronto Police Services, with $5 Million in stolen luxury cars being seized in the third and latest police operation in 2016.^[24][25][26]

• Independent Soldiers Gang: Consisting mostly of Punjabis, Euro-Canadians and Indo-Fijians, the gang was said to be founded in Vancouver.^[27] Canadians of Punjabi, Euro-Canadian and Indo-Fijian ethnicities make up most of the gang.^[28] This organization is part of the Wolf Pack and was founded as the "sunset boys" and this gang was involved in the 2009 Vancouver gang war.^[29]

• Kang Crime Group: Formerly a part of the Brothers Keepers organization but due to differences between members, had splintered and formed a new organization which is also called the "BIBO" Gang. The Kang Crime Group was founded by brothers Sameet Singh "Sam" Kang and Gary Singh Kang and the group is known to be in a war with the Brothers Keepers for control of territory in Metro Vancouver, the Lower Mainland and across Vancouver Island.^[30] This organization is thought to be based in Burnaby, British Columbia but its presence is thought to extend throughout British Columbia and Alberta.^[31] According to court witness testimony along with police surveillance and drug seizures throughout "Project Territory"; detectives, intelligence analysts and prosecutors alleged that the Kang Group had been a supplier for the Red Scorpions gang and the leader of the Gang outside of prison, Kyle Latimer.^[32]

• Malhi-Buttar Coalition: This coalition was made up of two groups, one led by Tejinder Singh Malhi and the other led by the Buttar brothers allegedly operating across Vancouver, the group allegedly operated at a high-level.^[33][34] This group is now almost defunct after the imprisonment of most of its members. This organization was the other group involved in the 2009 Vancouver gang war.^[35]

• Punjabi Mafia: Was alleged to be made up of the Dosanjh group, Johal group and Buttar group.^{[citation needed]} Other parts of it are considered to be somewhat dismantled, with factions of the Buttar Family also still operating. The Punjabi Mafia was originally founded by Ranjit Cheema, the Dosanjh Brothers and Robbie Kandola with a rival faction being controlled by Bindy Johal before his death.^[36]

• Sanghera Crime Group: Founded by Uddham Singh Sanghera, this group was believed by police to be responsible for over 100 shootings in the 2009 Vancouver gang war in Vancouver.^[37][38] The Vancouver Police Department has targeted and for the most part been able to capture members of the group. The courts have sentenced members of the Sanghera family to prison terms although the remnants of the organization are alleged to be active.^[39]

See also[]

List of gangs in Canada

References[]

External links[]

• http://www.warriorsreligion.com/resources/deathlist
• http://indocanadiangangs.blogspot.ca/