B.C. extortion update: 7 charged, 9 expelled, 111 facing immigration investigations

SURREY — An update from the BC Extortion Task Force says it’s taken over 32 files across the Lower Mainland since it was established four months ago to combat a wave of shootings and blackmail attempts targeting the South Asian community.

It says seven people have been criminally charged and nine people have been removed from Canada, among 111 foreign nationals under investigation for inadmissibility due to immigration offences.

Assistant Commissioner John Brewer of the B.C. RCMP says the effort has been “unrelenting” and the task force has over 1,000 exhibits and hundreds of hours of CCTV footage that is being meticulously analyzed.

The update comes amid a surge in extortion-related crime in Surrey, B.C., where police say they have responded to another shooting.

The latest attack came early Monday at about 4:30 a.m. along King George Boulevard near 71 Avenue, where the shooting was reported at a local business.

The Surrey Police Service says no one was injured, but they arrived to find the business and some vehicles damaged.

Serious crime investigators have taken the case, with police saying the attack appears to be linked to the spate of extortion violence.

The shooting is one of at least four in the Metro Vancouver city over the last week that investigators have linked to extortion.

The task force says it has “obtained almost 100 judicial authorizations and executed multiple search warrants” since its inception in both B.C. and in Alberta, resulting in seven people being charged.

“Please know that we are moving forward with each investigation to ensure that those who are responsible for these acts are held accountable,” Brewer says in the statement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 20, 2026.