A sprawling world net of gangsters focused in a large federal takedown used California as its money register to rake in hundreds of thousands of {dollars} by means of extortion schemes, contract killings, and drug and gun trafficking, authorities revealed.
Native and federal officers on Tuesday arrested 11 accused members of transnational, India-based gangs and their associates within the Golden State as a part of a case dubbed “Operation Laborious Ball.”
Los Angeles’ high federal prosecutor, Invoice Essayli, described the gangs as essentially the most highly effective you’ve by no means heard of, allegedly reaping hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in unlawful income from drug offers, extortion, weapons gross sales and theft.
“These prison organizations have engaged in widespread violence, together with focused killings, extortions and kidnappings,” and “flooded communities across the nation with huge portions of cocaine and methamphetamine,” Essayli stated.
Courtroom paperwork within the case uncovered the grip the India-based organized crime syndicates allegedly have on California, even with their bosses working from jail cells hundreds of miles away.
The scary Bishnoi gang based by Lawrence Bishnoi, who stays locked in an Indian jail, used Whatsapp to direct the actions of a whole bunch of kilos of medicine throughout California and extort victims from LA and Thousand Oaks, courtroom paperwork present.
“Utilizing contraband cellphones and different… units smuggled into his jail cell, defendant Bishnoi personally directed political assassinations, murders, shootings, extortions, kidnappings, drug trafficking, human smuggling, and different crimes,” the paperwork say.
The gang is accused of stealing about 1,150 kilos of cocaine from rival drug dealing outfits within the larger LA space between March 2024 and July 2025.
Bishnoi allegedly used his California underlings to do different soiled work within the state, authorities stated.
One Bishnoi lieutenant, Rajan Bhatti, is accused of utilizing terrifying threats in an try to extort $200,000 from an undercover federal officer posing as a rich expat dwelling in LA, courtroom papers reveal.
“We’re going to trigger hurt to you,” Bhatti allegedly stated. “Your children, your loved ones, everybody. It doesn’t matter to me if I kill somebody. That’s what I do.”
Members of one other India-based crime outfit — the Bhagwanpuria gang, led by imprisoned Indian mastermind Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, 38 — are accused of ruthlessly exploiting their connections to extort victims, federal officers stated.
Bhagwanpuria gang member Gurlal Singh, 22, of Stockton, Calif., allegedly conspired with a corrupt cop in India’s Punjab state to falsely accuse their victims of homicide and extort them over the pending case.
One other member of the Bhagwanpuria gang, Gurdev Singh, 26, is alleged to have tried to extort a household whereas he was being held in ICE custody, utilizing smuggled communication units to threaten to “put bullets in your children.”
Bhagwanpuria himself “personally directed the transportation and distribution of enormous a great deal of cocaine inside California from his jail in India,” prosecutors cost.
Federal prosecutors additionally charged British Columbia resident Ravinder Singh Dhanda, 57, with smuggling a whole bunch of kilos of cocaine and methamphetamine every week from the US into Canada.
Dhanda’s gang used semi vans and farming vans to maneuver the medicine from Los Angeles, West Covina, Ontario, Fontana and Perris to the US-Canada border, courtroom papers say.
Accused Dhanda drug trafficker Justin Guzman, of El Monte, was arrested Tuesday on the Metro station the place he works a day job. Guzman is accused in a federal charging doc of smuggling greater than 150 kilos of cocaine for the gang.
Accused gang members have been arrested in Los Angeles, Fresno, Sacramento, Stockton, San Jose and different California cities in Tuesday’s takedown, legislation enforcement officers stated. Twenty-three search warrants have been executed within the Sacramento space, and 19 have been served in Los Angeles.
“They’re individuals who used LA as type of the crossroads of their prison enterprise, whether or not it’s medicine, extortion, homicide, or different issues,” stated LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell.
Authorities on Tuesday carried out at the least 50 raids within the US, Canada and Europe. Different suspects have been arrested in Indiana and Georgia, together with three in Canada and one in Spain.
As a part of the investigation, legislation enforcement seized greater than 2,200 kilos of cocaine and heroin, $40,000 money and a dozen firearms.
Authorities are additionally looking seven fugitives within the US, two in India and one in Europe.
