Who’s Paddling the Illicit Drug-Peddling Bogey?

6 min readJun 26, 2021

The problem of drug trafficking has become a menace among the Sikh Community. Time and again it has poised a severe threat to the Sikh identity which has defamed and flung mud upon the Sikhs all over. The recent probe into the matter through Project Cheetah in Ontario, Canada has opened the debate once again. A total of 33 people, including 27 Ontario residents, were charged with more than 130 criminal offences. Out of 33 names surfaced in total, 23 came out to be Sikhs and others belonging to the Muslim community. It is not the first time when such cases have been unearthed. Various attempts have been made in the past to discredit and disparage Sikh’s image specifically belonging to India as organizations like the successionist group- SFJ have to flourish their agenda of creating a rift among the Sikh community so as to achieve their age-old demand of Khalistan.

Crime syndicates like Dhaliwal and Grewal gangs, involved in drug trafficking and operating out of the Canadian state of British Columbia, are directly linked to SFJ leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun and his aides, revealed a confidential report prepared by the International Narcotics Control Strategy Report. Dhaliwal and Grewal gangs founded a Vancouver-based notorious mafia syndicate ‘’Brothers Keepers’’. Besides drug trafficking, contract killing and gun running, Brothers Keepers also fund SFJ leaders and those associated with the Khalistan movement.

The US based pro-Khalistan SFJ group was banned by the Indian government in July 2019 for its anti-Indian activities. The SFJ, which also has clear-cut links with Pakistani establishments, revealed in the report of 2020 by Terry Milewski- ‘Khalistan- A Project of Pakistan’ has been pushing for a referendum for self-determination by the Sikh community in support of Khalistan. The referendum has now been finally postponed to August 15th, 2021- the Independence Day of India. Several key activists of SFJ were identified in India and as of now over a dozen cases have been registered against them.

Most of these cases, having international ramifications, are being investigated by the Intelligence agencies. The intelligence report reviewed by them said that SFJ, which was receiving funds from Canadian syndicates, was also transferring money to its activists in Punjab and Tarai area of Uttar Pradesh through hawala.

The Royal Canadian Mountain Police (RCMP) have listed over nine Indo-Canadian crime groups involved in drug trafficking, extortion, money laundering and kidnapping. The gangs have links with Mexican drug cartels through which they smuggle cocaine, while back in Punjab these groups are connected with South Asian gangs involved in cross-border smuggling of heroin.

The most active gang, Brothers Keepers, recruits young Canadians of Indian origin. Earlier in a major state-wide crackdown in British Columbia, the RCMP and local police agencies had arrested 14 gangsters, including five belonging to Punjab, in one of the biggest ever operations in British Columbia’s history in 2018. The RCMP recovered 120 firearms, 50 kg drugs and cash worth over $1.6 million from the Indian origin gangsters during raids at different hideouts. Recently, Harb Dhaliwal lost his life in a targeted shooting by Vancouver police. He was an alleged member of the Brothers Keepers gang. Thus, it is evident how Sikhs have been used as scapegoats by SFJ and further by Pakistan to attain their ulterior motives.

Since long back, Pakistan has explicitly facilitated Khalistan separatists by pumping in million of dollars to revive the anti-Indian movement following their futile attempts at propagating anti-India sentiments in the West. During the Pakistan Day celebrations on March 23, 2019 held at the Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canadian Senator Salman Attaullahjan of Pakistani origin invited prominent proponent of Khalistan, Sukhminder Singh Hansra. Hansra, who openly advocates for Khalistan and is a leading figure in the separatist movement in Canada, was provided with a platform to spew venom against the Sikhs of Punjab.

*Proponent of Khalistan, Sukhminder Singh Hansra, addressing an event in Ottawa during Pakistan Day celebration.*

For those who believe history moves in a straight line, and what’s past is past, some signs can set you thinking. The deeply ingrained nexus between Canadian gangsters of Indian origin and pro-Khalistan Sikh leaders in the US and Canada is not newly invented. Earlier, a top Sikh politician was accused of having linkages with drug kingpin Ranjeet Singh Cheema. In early 2000 Cheema had founded one of the biggest cartels of cocaine smuggling in Canada. Cheema and slain gangster Bhupinder Singh Sohal were responsible for over a dozen killings in Canada during 1990–2012. In February 1998, Cheema was first charged in attempt to smuggle heroin worth $4 million and 4,000 kg of hashish from a former Pakistani general and members of a Columbian cartel. Cheema had argued that a Pakistani named Mohammed Yusuf Khan was acting illegally as an agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration when he met with Cheema in Vancouver in April 1997 to discuss their plan to import more than 200 kilograms of heroin into North America. Khan told police he was working with a retired Pakistani military man named Major Mohamed Shafiq who had spoken to him about transporting heroin to Vancouver for Cheema. For months, there were clandestine meetings in Pakistan, Montreal, Vancouver, Los Angeles and Singapore — some of them monitored by police — that were all allegedly part of the plot.

In Canada, Sikh extremism and the security implications of the consolidations of these movements have been understated and always downplayed as these communities are seen as an extensive source of vote banks, who no party wants to lose. Moreover, the sheer size of these communities has ensured that their concerns remain heard. The Sikh population forms less than two percent of Canada’s total population, but the community is concentrated in swing states and constituencies, and thus has a major impact on electoral outcomes.

One of the sensational members of the Canadian Parliament, Jagmeet Singh Dhaliwal who is serving as the leader of the New Democratic Party since 2017 is also seen as a fundraiser for pro-Khalistan activities. Jagmeet Singh, born to immigrant Indian parents, caught the attention of Indian agencies when he organised a conference of pro-Khalistan activists in Ontario in 2013, aimed at maligning the image of India abroad. Two years later in 2015, as a legislature member of NDP, Jagmeet Singh appeared at a pro-Khalistan rally in San Francisco. In recent years, Jagmeet Singh had showered praises on dreaded terror leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who was killed in a gunfight during Operation Blue Star in 1984.

The Pakistan’s spy agency, the ISI, is said to be behind the illegal drug trafficking at the international border as they target the Punjabi youth to get addicted to it, Daily Sikh reported.

On August 22nd 2020. The Special Task Force (STF) seized 4.2 kg of heroin hidden in a water pipe across the barbed fence near Chanduwadala village border outpost in Gurdaspur in Gurdaspur district. A STF official said that the seizure was made following the questioning of Sukhwinder Singh alias Kaka, of Chanduwadala village, who had around 15 acres across the barbed fence. Kaka was arrested following a tip-off that he, along with Karandeep Singh of Dhilwan and Mandeep Singh of Chanduwadala village, had smuggled a drug consignment, procured from Pakistan-based smugglers, into the country. In another incident of August 26th, Punjab Police busted an international narco-terror racket with links to proscribed militant group Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) with the arrest of a wanted drug smuggler, Rajinder Singh alias Ganja and a police constable Karamjit Singh. A .32 bore pistol, four live cartridges and 530 grams heroin were recovered from Rajinder’s possession. According to police, Rajinder faces several drugs and arms-related cases. He was also involved in hawala transactions to the tune of Rs 12 crore. The police constable was facilitating safe movement of drugs and money during the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

There are various other incidents like these where Pakistan is caught to be infiltrating arms and ammunitions so as to create chaos in its neighbouring nation. Their chosen weapon has always happened to be the innocent members of Sikh ethnic group who are targeted along the religious axis and became easy prey for a few pennies. Ultimately, it’s the Sikhs who are getting defamed as none care to look as to who’s running the boggy.

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Who’s Paddling the Illicit Drug-Peddling Bogey?

Written by Navdeep Singh