More Abbotsford businesses report extortion letters amid cross-Canada investigations

In the six weeks since Abbotsford police first revealed local business owners have been blackmailed with extortion letters, more have come forward as a growing number of police agencies across the country investigate the disturbing trend, CTV News has learned.

The same letters continue to circulate in the Fraser Valley, with self-proclaimed “Indian gang members” demanding two million dollars in protection money, with the AbbyPD’s Major Crimes Unit handling the complaints.

“More and more people are coming forward saying they have received letters or threats of similar nature,” confirmed Const. Artur Stele. “We have had a lot of moving parts and obviously speaking with a lot of other jurisdictions.” 

Surrey RCMP arrested two men in connection with extortion letters after a shooting last week, with White Rock RCMP facing their own local cases, including shots fired at a home. When contacted about the cases on Tuesday, BC RCMP would not say whether they are working with policing agencies outside the province on similar cases.

Peel Regional Police have been more forthcoming, however, making it clear they believe there are west coast connections to threats against members of the South Asian business community after they arrested a 23-year-old B.C. suspect late last month after a Brampton shooting.

CTV News has heard from multiple members of Edmonton’s homebuilder community, who say they are being extorted with similar messages on social media: pay up, or their projects will be torched. The police are investigating multiple arsons in the city in recent weeks, striking a task force to investigate. Peel police have also launched a dedicated task force.

Each police agency that CTV News has contacted in B.C., however, has only spoken to incidents that happened in their own jurisdiction and there’s no indication a special co-ordination effort has been implemented to address this situation.

“We've had houses shot up, we've had businesses shot up and I believe only about a third of that is reported to the police,” said former West Vancouver police chief and one-time solicitor general, Kash Heed, who believes B.C.’s fractured policing structure isn’t helping matters. 

“The politicians have to look at this as a priority for the South Asian community or we're going to have people die,” he warned. 

Public safety minister, Mike Farnworth, was unavailable for an interview to discuss inter-provincial co-operation but sent an email statement insisting that his staff “are working with local police departments, the BC RCMP as well as the federal RCMP to ensure that police agencies are working in a co-ordinated fashion.”