In one of the biggest international crackdowns on India-linked organised crime networks, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has charged Punjab gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his aide Goldy Brar in the 2023 assassination of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Nijjar in Canada. The FBI also announced a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest of Satinderjeet Singh alias Goldy Brar.
The two were named among 37 individuals charged in three federal indictments following a US-led crackdown on transnational organised crime networks codenamed Operation Hardball. 24 people have been arrested so far in the US, Canada and Europe, including 11 in California, as part of the years-long investigation into three India-based gangs. Giving details of the operation, FBI Los Angeles Assistant Director in Charge Patrick Grandy said it struck “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.” Indian security agencies are believed to have extended cooperation to the investigation.
The assassination of Nijjar, designated a terrorist by India, outside a gurudwara in Surrey, British Columbia had led to a break in the India- Canada bilateral relationship with the then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleging the involvement of Indian government agents in the killing. Hours after details of Operation Hardball were announced, Lisa Moreland, Deputy Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said the investigators found no evidence that Indian officials were involved in Nijjar’s killing. The FBI has alleged that Bishnoi and Brar, who headed the North America operations for the gang, had ordered the hit on Nijjar.
The three gangs targeted in the operation include those headed by Lawrence Bishnoi, Jaggu Bhagwanpuria- a former Bishnoi associate turned rival- and Ravinder Dhanda. While Bishnoi is currently lodged in Sabarmati Central Jail in Gujarat, Bhagwanpuria is imprisoned in Assam. According to the indictment, Bishnoi ran his network from the jail cell using smuggled phones, cultivating a public image as a nationalist and religious figure even as he directed assassinations, extortion, drug trafficking and kidnappings across continents. The indictment identifies Goldy Brar as the syndicate’s North American chief and Rohit Godara as its European head. The Bishnoi group has previously been linked to the 2022 killing of popular Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala. Canada formally designated the Bishnoi network a terrorist entity in September 2025.
A separate indictment alleged Bhagwanpuria’s syndicate has over 1,000 members and associates worldwide, including more than 100 in the US. Prosecutors claim the organisation infiltrated sections of the Punjab Police, using corrupt officials to file fabricated criminal cases against rivals, extort money and intimidate witnesses. In this regard, it named Punjab Police officer Gurinderjit Singh Nagra as an accused in the attempted extortion an Indian-origin family living in the US. Nagra allegedly demanded $400,000 (around Rs 3.3 crore) from the family by threatening to implicate them in a false murder case in India. An inquiry has been ordered into the allegations and the officer has been sent to the Police lines.
The indictment alleges that in April 2026, Gurlal Singh, a member of the Bhagwanpuria syndicate based in Stockton, California, threatened a victim in the United States before passing the victim’s details to Nagra in Punjab. Prosecutors alleged that the officer subsequently implicated the victim, the victim’s father and sister in a January 2026 murder case registered in Punjab.
A third indictment charges Ravinder Dhanda and associates in Canada of running a large-scale narcotics trafficking network that allegedly smuggled hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine every week across the US-Canada border.
Operation Hardball led to the seizure of around 1,000 kg of cocaine, 1 kg of heroin, $40,000 in cash and a dozen firearms. Investigators also executed 34 search warrants across the Sacramento and Los Angeles regions. While 24 suspects have been arrested, 10 fugitives remain at large, seven of them believed to be in the United States. The charges in the indictments remain an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.
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