Mayor of Caledon, Ont., joins calls for feds to tackle extortion cases linked to international organized crime

When Dharmjit Mand’s Caledon, Ont., home and farm were shot at on Nov. 25, 2025, he thought moving his family to his brother’s house would keep them safe. 

But on Dec. 11, bullets pierced through the garage and windows.

No one was hurt during the shootings, which Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) are still investigating, but Mand said it all started with a series of WhatsApp texts and calls in October.

A man claiming to be part of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang demanded Mand pay him $2 million. When he didn’t, Mand says the man started threatening him.

After the Nov. 25 shooting, the man sent him a video, reviewed by CBC News, appearing to show his farm getting shot. After the Dec. 11 shooting, the man told Mand the next target would be his head.

“We cannot sleep,” Mand said.

The Bishnoi gang, which has roots in India and was declared a terrorist organization by the Canadian government last year, has been accused of targeting South Asian residents in incidents that have made headlines in B.C., Brampton, and now Caledon. 

There were at least 41 incidents of extortion in Caledon since December 2023 that appear to share a similar pattern, per the OPP, though it’s not clear how many of them are specifically tied to the Bishnoi gang.

Victims would receive calls and messages threatening violence unless victims pay a ransom, with the perpetrators often knowing where they live or work, the police force said in a release detailing the issue.

Caledon’s mayor says the town doesn’t have enough resources to tackle the issue and wants the federal government to step in.

“I am asking the federal government to act and support efforts to help end this international extortion activity,” Mayor Annette Groves wrote in a letter addressed to the prime minister and the minister of public safety dated Dec. 23. 

Fourteen reported shootings were linked with the extortion cases in Caledon, OPP spokesperson Jesse Nobleman told CBC News in a statement, noting the OPP has arrested five people so far, while more investigations are ongoing. 

The latest incident happened Tuesday, with Groves telling CBC News a business that was shot at has been targeted multiple times in recent weeks. She says the province pitched in roughly $70,000 to install CCTV cameras at incident “hotspots” this past fall to help police catch the shooters. 

“This has gotten out of hand,” she said. “Local municipalities need more police officers.”

Mand, who spent weeks living anxiously out of a hotel after the second shooting, says he knows people who have left Caledon because they were threatened.

Gang believed to be behind extortion 

The Lawrence Bishnoi gang is one of a number of criminal enterprises from northern India that spread into North America, according to Canadian police sources.

Nobleman, with the OPP, said the extortion cases in Caledon have links to organized criminal groups, though he didn’t identify the gang.

“We don’t want to legitimize these groups or risk affecting criminal proceedings by naming them,” he wrote. 

Since Grove sent her letter to Ottawa, the mayor says she’s yet to get a commitment from the government for help, but she was invited to an anti-extortion summit happening next week.

“I hope that from that summit they are going to take everything we say very seriously and … put their money where their mouth is,” she said.

Last month, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown also wrote a letter to the federal government, asking it to fund a task force to tackle the issue, similar to how it helped fund a provincial taskforce in B.C. Groves says she hopes for the same thing. 

In a statement, a spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree, did not directly address whether or not the federal government will devote resources to help Caledon and Brampton. 

“The Minister is in contact with governments and local leaders across the country to ensure all federal tools are being used to disrupt and dismantle the criminal networks behind these extortion incidents,” Simon Lafortune said in an email.

In the meantime, after a decade of living in Caledon, Mand says he’s thinking about moving his family to the U.S.

“Right now it’s not safe anymore,” he said.