Bishnoi Gang Letter to Canadian Police: Threat to Public Safety & National Security
Jason LaFace / Alberta Radio September 16th, 2026
A letter purporting to come from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang was delivered to a police station in Abbotsford, B.C., on August 13, 2025 — and it has become one of the clearest public windows into how the India-based extortion network has tried to intimidate Canadian law enforcement.
Despite how the story is often summarized, the letter was not sent to the RCMP as the primary recipient. Abbotsford Police Department confirmed receiving it. Officials said details were shared with law-enforcement partners across Canada working the national extortion crisis.
What police said was in the letter:
The letter’s existence became widely known in May 2026, when Edmonton Police Service Const. Kevin St. Louis testified at an Immigration and Refugee Board deportation hearing. He described a message from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang that outlined the group’s structure and claimed “upwards of 1,000” people were willing to carry out shootings on its behalf.
Abbotsford police confirmed the letter and said detectives with Operation Community Shield began investigating its origin and contents.
What the full text claimed
CBC News later obtained the letter through an Access to Information request for IRB hearing exhibits. Reporting on that disclosure said the letter was framed as a warning and challenge to Canada’s “defence minister, army and police,” signed roughly as “Lawrence gang from India.”
Key claims reported from the full text include:
• More than 5,000 gang members in Canada
• A boast of having “more guns” than police
• A line that shootings could be done “for only $1000”
• A threat that business owners would have to pay protection money “like TAX,” regardless of community background
• The phrase “we will rule in CANADA”
The letter was described as poorly spelled and lightly punctuated — consistent with a crude intimidation note rather than a polished communiqué.
Why the numbers don’t settle the case
Police testimony cited roughly 1,000 willing shooters; the letter text CBC obtained claimed more than 5,000 members. Those figures are gang boasts, not independently verified manpower counts. Investigators treat the document as a threat letter and an investigative lead — evidence of intent and messaging — not proof of actual roster size.
Broader context
Canada designated the Bishnoi Gang a terrorist entity in September 2025 amid a wave of shootings, arsons, and extortion demands targeting businesses, especially in South Asian communities. Parallel RCMP and multi-agency reporting has linked Bishnoi-linked networks to violent crime and, in separate national-security allegations, to activity connected to India’s government — claims India denies.
The letter also surfaced inside a larger CBSA/IRB disclosure package tied to the inadmissibility case of Jashandeep Singh, a suspected associate ordered removed after arriving in Canada as a student in late 2022.
Bottom line for readers
The Bishnoi letter matters because it shows the gang trying to speak directly to Canadian police and project power. What it does not do is prove the group’s claimed strength. Abbotsford police received it, shared it with partners, and investigated it. The rest is still a live organized-crime and national-security story.
Alberta Radio
