Criminal networks using young people from India for extortion schemes, Fintrac warns

An RCMP officer drives a police vehicle in Surrey, B.C., on Friday, April 28, 2023 THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

OTTAWA — Canada’s financial intelligence agency says criminal organizations appear to be using young students from India to help extort people and businesses in South Asian communities across the country.

In a newly published special bulletin, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada advises banks and others who handle money to watch for numerous telltale signs of extortion-related activities.

The federal centre, better known as Fintrac, identifies cash linked to money laundering by sifting through millions of pieces of information each year from banks, credit unions, securities dealers, money service businesses, real estate brokers, casinos and others.

The centre discloses the intelligence it collects to law enforcement and security partners, including the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the RCMP and other police forces.

Fintrac says it has generated more than 100 financial intelligence disclosures related to extortion so far in 2026 — more than in the last two years combined.

It says these disclosures identified more than 300 subjects and included over 63,000 financial transactions.

Extortion targeting South Asian communities in Canada has evolved from sporadic threats into a “sustained campaign of coercion” involving intimidation, opportunistic violence and co-ordination across provincial borders — most notably in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario, the bulletin says.

Small and medium-sized business owners in sectors such as retail, transportation, construction, real estate and hospitality are often targeted by anonymous calls or messages demanding payments, sometimes in the range of hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars, Fintrac says. Coercive tactics include gunfire and arson.

Groups target the ‘financially vulnerable’

The Fintrac analysis suggests multiple crime groups, including the Bishnoi and Bambiha gangs, are involved in ongoing extortion activities, the bulletin says.

“Notably, reporting submitted to Fintrac indicates the possibility of copycat actors leveraging the weight associated with these crime groups to maximize their own impact,” it says.

Fintrac found these groups appear to recruit or rely on individuals already in Canada — typically “financially vulnerable, young male Indian nationals” on study permits — to transfer money or act as enforcers.

Victims often face immediate demands for lump sum payments through email money transfers, cheques or cryptocurrency, or cash deliveries arranged under duress, the bulletin says.

While criminals typically seek huge sums running into the millions, email money transfers and cash deposit values analyzed by Fintrac suggest individual payments may be within a much lower range — hundreds of dollars to tens of thousands of dollars.

“It implies that victims probably negotiate with extortionists for payouts to be more realistic or manageable,” the bulletin says. “High-value payments may be substituted for ‘financing plans’ that pay enforcers smaller amounts over a set period.”

Victims, who are often local business owners, may try to complete large cash withdrawals or wire transfers that are inconsistent with past transactions they have made, Fintrac says.

The customer may be nervous or distressed and appear to be receiving direction or coaching as they attempt to liquidate long-term investments or make outgoing wire transfers to new parties, the bulletin adds.

‘Institutional vigilance’

Suspicious transaction reporting to Fintrac indicates people implicated in violent extortion activities processed email money transfers, cheques and cash deposits “in volumes and values inconsistent with their reported status, for example, as international students,” the bulletin says.

Addressing such criminal activity “requires early reporting and strong institutional vigilance,” Fintrac says.

“Continued efforts are also needed to reduce the stigma and fear that prevent victims from seeking help. These are factors that offenders increasingly rely on to maintain their influence and avoid detection.”

Fintrac warns financial institutions that customers trying to disguise money in such cases may use aliases, pseudonyms or “rapper” stage names.

In cases associated with extortion directed at the South Asian diaspora community, the person making the transaction will typically be between 17 and 28 years old, possess an Indian passport and identify themselves as an international student, generally at a college rather than a university, the bulletin says.

The customer will likely make unexplained cash deposits, possibly at several branch locations or at automated teller machines, the bulletin adds. In turn, it says, these deposits may finance rapid email money transfers to unknown third parties.

Fintrac found that such customers might also use money service businesses or banks to make transactions with people or companies in India, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and possibly Portugal or Kenya.

In addition, the bulletin says, international students could pay for hotels or short-term rentals, travel booking services, gas and fast food in places where the South Asian community has been targeted — possibly far from their schools, with no prior links to those areas.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 23, 2026.

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press