From student politics-level brawls to featuring in the case files of one of the world’s top investigating agencies, the FBI, the exploits and extortion rackets of Punjab’s gangsters have assumed gigantic proportions. This was underlined by an FBI-led operation this week that has put three of the state’s most notorious gangsters -- Lawrence Bishnoi, Jaggu Bhagwanpuria and Goldy Brar -- in the crosshairs of American law enforcement.
A former student of DAV College, Chandigarh, whose penchant for brawls landed him in the city’s infamous Burail Jail, from where he began expanding his narco-gangster network, Bishnoi, along with Bhagwanpuria, is among 37 gangsters charged in a sweeping US-led crackdown on transnational organised crime networks.
Related news: US charges gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, Goldy Brar over Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s killing in Canada
Along with his aide Satinderjeet Singh, alias Goldy Brar, Bishnoi was accused by the Canadian government in 2023 of orchestrating the assassination of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia. While Goldy remains at large, reportedly somewhere in the West, possibly the US, Bishnoi is lodged in an Ahmedabad jail. Bhagwanpuria is lodged in a jail in Assam. FBI has announced $50,000 reward for Goldy Brar’s arrest in Hardeep Singh Nijjar murder case.
There was no official reaction from the Punjab Police to the charges levelled by the US Department of Justice as to how Indian gangsters had built a transnational narco-gangster network while operating from jail cells in India. An official, speaking to The Tribune on condition of anonymity, said the Punjab Police had repeatedly flagged the activities of gangsters operating from “safe havens” in Western countries. The official said the US, Canada and other nations could assist by expediting the sharing of information and the extradition of gangsters wanted in Punjab.
The US Department of Justice, announcing the multinational law enforcement crackdown codenamed Operation Hard Ball, said 24 persons had been arrested in the US, Canada and Europe, including 11 in California.
FBI Los Angeles Assistant Director in-charge Patrick Grandy said the operation 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.”
According to the indictment, Bishnoi ran his network from an Indian jail cell using smuggled phones, cultivating a public image as a nationalist and religious figure even as he allegedly directed assassinations, extortion, drug trafficking and kidnappings across continents. Goldy Brar was named the North American head of the enterprise and Rohit Godara its European chief.
Bhagwanpuria, a former Bishnoi associate-turned-rival, is named in a separate indictment alleging that his syndicate has more than 1,000 members and associates worldwide, including over 100 in the US, and that it corrupted police officers in Punjab to file false cases against rivals and witnesses.
A third indictment charges Ravinder Singh Dhanda and his associates in Canada with smuggling hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine every week across the US-Canada border.
The alleged kingpin remains Lawrence Bishnoi, whose notoriety led to his being named the prime conspirator in the 2022 killing of singer Sidhu Moosewala. Canada formally designated the Bishnoi network as a terrorist entity in September 2025.
Bhagwanpuria has for years allegedly been involved in extortion rackets targeting Punjabi businessmen and NRIs, with his network expanding steadily across the Indian diaspora in Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.