Edmonton police warn extortions, arsons targeting South Asian businesses resurging

EDMONTON — Edmonton police warned a crowded town hall on Monday night that extortions and arsons similar to ones that targeted members of the South Asian community across the city and elsewhere in Canada about a year ago have seen a resurgence in recent months.

Interim Chief of Police Warren Driechel said the attacks in Edmonton had stopped after several suspects were arrested in 2024 in connection to about 40 extortions and arsons targeting affluent South Asian homebuilders and business owners.

But since May, he said six more similar cases have been reported, leading investigators to believe the attacks are back and that there may be more victims.

“They’re very similar activity,” Dreichel told reporters as community members left the town hall, during which police encouraged members of the South Asian diaspora to come forward if they’ve been targeted with extortion threats.

“There has been obviously some financial loss to people,” he said.

Local business owner Ashish Verma said he felt a little relieved after attending the town hall as he was one of the people who was threatened this summer.

He said he received a message from extorters demanding $100,000 and threats his children would be kidnapped if he didn’t pay up.

Verma said he immediately told police. But even after police got involved, he said he remains worried over his and his family’s safety.

“It’s very hard for me to go out. Whenever my kids want to go out alone to play downstairs or out in the garden, I tell them not to go. I try to keep an eye on them. I’m scared,” he said in an interview outside the town hall.

“I can’t sleep sometimes.”

Dreichel said similar extortions and arsons targeting British Columbia and Ontario’s South Asian community, including homebuilders and business owners, have taken place in recent years.

The investigation into the previous 40 cases of arsons, extortions, and shootings in Edmonton has been dubbed Project Gaslight.

In January, EPS said its detectives completed their investigation and several suspects were arrested. Police said they were seeking to extradite Maninder Dhaliwal, the alleged ringleader of the Edmonton attacks, from the United Arab Emirates.

Police have said the suspects often reached out to victims over social media and threatened violence if they didn’t receive money.

Several people have lost millions over the threats. Businesses have been shot. Homes have been burned down across the country.

Edmonton’s Interim Chief of Police Devin Laforce said in a separate news conference this month that investigators believe the cases across the country and the latest ones in Edmonton could be connected to the Bishnoi gang, led by Lawrence Bishnoi in India who has several associates in Canada.

That’s why Laforce said the police service supports calls from provincial governments in Alberta and B.C., and the mayor of Brampton in Ontario, to designate the gang as a terrorist entity.

B.C. Premier David Eby sent a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney last month asking for the designation. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis said this month in a statement that the gang is not welcome in the province.

Laforce said the designation would help investigators look into the gang with a national focus. It allows investigators to withhold banking funds, for example, have more resources for surveillance and also deter others from joining the gang.

Police at Monday’s town hall told South Asian community members to report ongoing crimes to police and look out for signs of youth being involved in gang activity, alleging ringleaders of the attacks in Project Gaslight recruited youth to commit crimes on their behalf.

Investigators said some of the signs include youth expressing a feeling that they don’t belong and lying about where they’re going and who they’re spending time with.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2025.

Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press