Three men have been charged several months after a shooting in Surrey, B.C., that police believe is tied to extortion.
The Surrey Police Service (SPS) said the shooting happened at about 1:55 a.m. on March 27, when a home in the 13300 block of 89A Avenue was struck by gunshots. No one was injured in the incident, police said.
Investigators have since determined the shooting was related to an ongoing extortion case in the area.
Mandeep Gidda, 23, Nirmaandeep Cheema, 20, and Arundeep Singh, 26, have been arrested and charged with one count each of reckless discharge of a firearm.
Police in B.C. are assembling a team to crack down on extortion threats targeting people in the South Asian Community. In Surrey alone, police are investigating dozens of complaints. As Meera Bains reports, officers are looking across the country and overseas.
Gidda and Cheema are scheduled to appear in court on Monday, while Singh is scheduled for Wednesday.
“These three arrests and charges are a positive step forward as Surrey Police Service continues to aggressively tackle the issue of extortions,” Chief Const. Norm Lipinski said in a news release. “Enforcement and all investigative tactics will continue to ramp up as we work together to bring these criminals to justice.”
The charges come as SPS officers look into a shooting in the early hours of Monday morning that left a South Surrey business damaged.
Police say they were called to the 2100 block of King George Boulevard at about 2:20 a.m. where there had been reports of shots fired. No one was injured, police say, but they discovered damage to the building caused by gunshots.
Earlier this year, the province launched a public awareness campaign encouraging people to report extortion attempts.
In September, the province launched an RCMP-led task force to tackle extortion and shootings targeting B.C.’s South Asian community. At the time, the SPS said it was actively investigating 45 extortion threats and 27 related shootings in that city alone.
The RCMP has linked the India-based Lawrence Bishnoi gang to extortion threats in Canada’s South Asian community, and last week, the federal government declared the gang a terrorist organization.
