CBSA opens 372 immigration investigations to 'disrupt extortion networks' in Canada

A Canada Border Services Agency patch is seen on the uniform of a CBSA officer. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)

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.”

A followup email from the agency says as of March 12, 34 removal orders were issued in Pacific region, which includes B.C. and the Yukon, and 25 people have already been removed from Canada.

It says the Pacific region’s first extortion-related immigration investigation began on August 26, 2025, ahead of the September announcement of B.C.’s Extortion Task Force.

Federal Conservative shadow minister for immigration Michelle Rempel Garner said in a statement that there were more than 13,000 reported incidents of extortion in Canada in 2024.

“While not all extortion incidents involve individuals who should be deported, the fact that CBSA has still only managed to enforce 35 removal orders does not denote progress,” she said.

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.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 18, 2026.

The Canadian Press