CBSA opens 372 immigration investigations to ‘disrupt extortion networks’ in Canada

By Canadian Press on March 18, 2026.

OTTAWA — Canada Border Services Agency says it has opened 372 immigration investigations in an effort to “disrupt extortion networks” across the country.

It says the CBSA began formally monitoring immigration enforcement cases potentially linked to extortion in the Pacific and Prairie regions last August before expanding the work to the Greater Toronto Area in November.

The agency says that as of last Thursday, it had issued a total of 70 removal orders on various inadmissibility grounds, and 35 have been enforced.

Among the communities most impacted by extortion is Surrey, B.C., where there were 133 reported cases of extortions in 2025 and police are looking into 64 cases so far this year.

The CBSA says it is investigating people alleged to be engaged in extortion, operating a tip line where it encourages people to share information or directly report the “whereabouts of those who are inadmissible to Canada.”

The agency’s president, Erin O’Gorman, says in the news release that extortion “empowers organized criminal groups, targets vulnerable people and inflicts lasting harm on Canadian communities.”

“The CBSA is committed to using every tool we have to counter this threat,” she says.

“By increasing our removal capacity and deepening our partnerships with police, we have made significant progress toward ensuring these criminals cannot remain in Canada.”

The agency highlighted two deportation cases, including that of Arshdeep Singh, who entered Canada on a study permit in 2022 but was arrested by border officers last year, accused of “membership in a criminal organization linked to extortion, arson, drug trafficking, and firearm offences.”

The CBSA says he was removed from Canada under escort in January.

Another deportee, Sukhnaaz Singh Sandhu, entered Canada as a temporary resident in 2016 but was arrested and detained for inadmissibility due to “organized criminality” in 2025, the agency says.

The CBSA says he was held in immigration detention on the grounds of being a danger to the public until his deportation under escort last month.