Tag: Indian-Americans

TORONTO (TIP): Three Indian-origin men have been arrested in Canada and will be extradited for trial in the US for their alleged links with a network trafficking drugs between Mexico and the North American nations.
A joint operation between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) dubbed “Operation Dead Hand” saw 19 people charged in two US federal indictments for their alleged roles in the organized crime ring.
Ayush Sharma, 25, and Guramrit Sandhu, 60, both from Brampton, and Subham Kumar, 29, from Calgary, were arrested under an international arrest warrant, the RCMP said in a release on Tuesday.
“Drug trafficking is a global problem being driven by sophisticated, organized crime groups who put profits over people’s lives. Motivated by greed, these criminals destroy lives, devastate families, and wreak havoc in our community,” told US Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California.
Investigators developed information indicating the organized crime group used Canadian “handlers’ and “dispatchers” who travelled from Canada to Los Angeles for short amounts of time, a Department of Justice release noted.
The handlers coordinated the pick-up and delivery of large shipments of cocaine and methamphetamine, which were loaded onto long-haul semi-trucks destined for Canada. Wholesale quantities of fentanyl were seized as a result of the investigation.
The transportation was coordinated by a network of drivers working with dozens of trucking companies who made numerous border crossings from the US to Canada via the Detroit Windsor Tunnel, the Buffalo Peace Bridge, and the Blue Water Bridge.
Sandhu, also known as King, is alleged to have orchestrated the trafficking and exportation of large-scale quantities of controlled substances to Canada working with several co-defendants described as suppliers.
According to the indictment, Sandhu occupied the position of an organizer, supervisor, and manager, and in this role obtained substantial income and resources.
He has been charged with one count of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, and if convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Sharma and Kumar were identified in the indictment as semi-truck drivers involved in exporting drugs to Canada.
Both the indictments allege illicit drug trafficking activity cumulatively involving approximately 845 kg of methamphetamine, 951 kg of cocaine, 20 kg of fentanyl, and 4 kg of heroin.
Over $900,000 in cash was seized during the investigation. The estimated wholesale value of the narcotics seized was between $16-28 million.
Arrest and search warrants were executed on Tuesday morning by a coalition of international law enforcement partners in various cities, including Los Angeles; Sacramento, California; Miami; Odessa, Texas; Montreal; Toronto; and Calgary, Canada.

TORONTO (TIP): An Indian-origin teenager has been arrested in connection with the death of another Indian-origin youth in a Canadian city and the police are on the lookout for any information or video footage to support the active investigation.
Nishan Thind, 18, of Brampton, a city in the Canadian province of Ontario, was admitted to a local hospital there on December 19 last year. The police were notified that he died after reaching the hospital.
“It was determined he (Thind) had been shot at an unidentified location and time and dropped off at the hospital,” police from the Region of Peel said in a statement.
Following Thind’s death, detectives from the Peel Regional Police Homicide Bureau on January 9 executed a search warrant at a Brampton residence and subsequently arrested 18-year-old Preetpaul Singh.
“He has been charged with Accessory After the Fact to Commit an Indictable Offence. He was held in custody to appear before the Ontario Court of Justice in Brampton,” police added.
The suspected shooter is a 16-year-old male from Brampton and is wanted on a Canada-wide warrant for manslaughter.
Police said, “This remains an active investigation; anyone with information or video footage (dashcam or otherwise) is urged to contact Homicide detectives.”

CHICAGO (TIP): Neel Acharya, an Indian student at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, who was reported missing on social media by his mother Sunday, January 28, has been confirmed dead.
In an email written to the university’s computer science department Monday, interim CS head Chris Clifton informed students and faculty of Acharya’s death, according to a local newspaper.
“It is with great sadness that I inform you that one of our students, Neel Acharya, has passed away,” Clifton wrote. “My condolences go out to his friends, family, and all affected.”
Clifton called Acharya a “driven individual and academically talented.” Acharya’s friend and roommate, Aryan Khanolkar, said he was a “loving, charismatic soul, and will be cherished by all of us.”
Acharya, who went to St. Mary’s School in Pune, was a double major in computer science and data science in the John Martinson Honors College. Clifton told the Exponent he received an email from the Office of the Dean of Students confirming Acharya’s death.
“A deceased person was found that matched Neel’s description and had Neel’s ID on (him),” he said.
On Sunday morning, a “college-aged” man was found dead near the Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories about 10:30 am. According to social media posts by users claiming to be close to Acharya, the student’s last known location was pinned in the same area the body was found.
The coroner has not confirmed whether Acharya was the man found near Zucrow that morning, which Robert Wang, a research assistant working at the lab, said had been found by a graduate student.
“It’s a shock,” Clifton said of Acharya. “A real loss to our community.”
Earlier, in a desperate plea, Gaury Acharya, Neel’s mother, posted about his disappearance on X, “Our son Neel Acharya has been missing since yesterday Jan 28 (12:30 AM EST) He is studying in Purdue University in the US. He was last seen by the Uber driver who dropped him off in Purdue university. We are looking for any info on him. Please help us if you know anything.”
The Consulate General of India in Chicago responded with assurances of support. “Consulate is in touch with Purdue University authorities and with Neel’s family. Consulate will extend all possible support and help,” it wrote.

ATLANTA (TIP): Vivek Saini, a 25-year-old Indian student from Haryana, who had come to the US to do his master’s in business administration was killed by a homeless man inside a store in Lithonia, Georgia.
The incident occurred on Jan 16, a local channel reported. Witnesses cited by the channel said Saini was brutally attacked with a hammer by the homeless man late at night after he asked him to leave the store.
Notably, employees at the food mart including Saini, had been feeding and sheltering the homeless man, identified as Julian Faulkner, for days.” He asked us for chips and coke. We gave him everything including the water,” one of the employees at the food mart, told media.
” He asked if I could get a blanket. I said we don’t have blankets, so I gave him a jacket. He was walking in and out asking him for cigarettes, water, and everything. He was sitting here all the time, and we never asked him to get out because we know that it’s cold.”
On Monday night, Saini told Faulkner that he needed to leave or else he would call the police. As the student was preparing to go home, Faulkner attacked him with a hammer and “kept on hitting for almost 50 times on the face on the head.” Saini suffered from ”severe head trauma” and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officers got a call around 12:30 am about an assault at a Chevron gas station in Lithonia, according to DeKalb County police. When officers arrived, they found a man, identified as Julian Faulkner, standing over a store clerk and holding a hammer in his hand, according to a police report.
Officers ordered the man to put down the weapon, and he complied before being arrested and escorted outside to a patrol vehicle. Two knives and another hammer were seized from him, the media reported.
A” substantial amount of blood spatter” was found on the floor of the convenience store. Cops also found a store clerk, who was hiding in the back of the booth” visibly shaken and could hardly speak due to fear.”
Faulkner remains in jail on charges of malice murder, and interference with government property.
Meanwhile, Saini’s family in Barwala, Haryana, told local media he had gone to the US two years ago after completing his BTech in Computer Science from Chandigarh University. He had recently completed his master’s in business administration from Alabama University.
“He was a brilliant student who just wanted a decent job to support himself and his family,” Saini’s cousin Simran said. The entire family is still reeling from Vivek’s brutal death and his parents, Gurjeet Singh and Lalita Saini, were not in a condition to talk about what happened.

LONDON (TIP): An Indian-origin couple in the UK, whose extradition was sought by India, has been convicted of exporting more than half a ton of cocaine to Australia after an investigation found that they were behind a front company that had sent the drugs by plane under a cover load of metal toolboxes.
Arti Dhir, 59, and Kavaljitsinh Raijada, 35, from Hanwell in Ealing were identified by the National Crime Agency (NCA) investigators after Australian Border Force intercepted the cocaine worth 57 million pounds upon its arrival in Sydney in May 2021, the agency said in a statement on Monday.
Dhir and Raijada denied exporting cocaine to Australia and money laundering. They were convicted of 12 counts of exportation and 18 counts of money laundering by a jury following a trial at Southwark Crown Court on Monday.
They will be sentenced at the same court on Tuesday.
The drugs had been shipped via a commercial flight from the UK and consisted of six metal toolboxes which, when opened, were found to contain 514 kilos of cocaine.
The drugs would have been worth up to 57 million pounds when sold in Australia, where prices are significantly higher than in the UK.
In the UK, a kilo of cocaine at wholesale is priced at around 26,000 pounds per kilo but in Australia, the same amount sells for 110,000 pounds.
Officers traced the consignment back to Dhir and Raijada, who had set up a front company called Viefly Freight Services with the sole purpose of smuggling drugs.
Both defendants had been directors of the company at different points since its incorporation in June 2015.
Raijada’s fingerprints were found on the plastic wrappings of the metal toolboxes containing the seized drugs, while receipts for the order of the toolboxes, worth 2,855 pounds were discovered at the couple’s home.
The NCA’s case was that there had been 37 consignments sent to Australia since June 2019, of which 22 were dummy runs and 15 contained cocaine.
Dhir had been employed by a flight services company at Heathrow from March 2003 until October 2016.
Raijada worked at the same company from March 2014 to December 2016.
NCA investigators believe that their knowledge of the airport freight procedures was used to cover their criminal activities.
Dhir and Raijada were arrested at their home in Hanwell on June 21, 2021, and officers seized 5,000 pounds worth of gold-plated silver bars, 13,000 pounds inside the home and found 60,000 pounds in cash in a safety deposit box.
Following further investigations, the pair were arrested again in February 2023.
NCA officers discovered almost 3 million pounds in cash hidden in boxes and suitcases at a storage unit in Hanwell, which Raijada had rented in his mother’s name.
Financial inquiries found they had also purchased a flat in Ealing for 8,00,000 pounds and a Land Rover for 62,000 pounds, despite declaring profits of only a few thousand pounds.
Investigations showed that both defendants held cash in bank accounts which far exceeded their declared income.
They had deposited almost 7,40,000 pounds in cash into 22 different bank accounts since 2019 and were further charged with money laundering.
The NCA will now start Proceeds of Crime proceedings against both defendants to strip them of their assets, it said.
Piers Phillips, NCA Senior Investigating Officer, said: “Arti Dhir and Kavaljitsinh Raijada used their insider knowledge of the air freight industry to traffic cocaine worth tens of millions of pounds from the UK to Australia, where they knew they could maximize their revenue.
“They kept their illicit profits in cash at their home and in storage units, as well as purchasing property, gold and silver to hide their wealth. These defendants may have thought they were removed from the misery caused by the drug trade, but their greed was fueling it.
“The NCA worked closely with our partners in Australia and the UK Border Force to dismantle the supply chain created by Dhir and Raijada and bring them to justice. We will continue to target class A drugs supply and the criminals overseeing it, both in the UK and overseas.”
Commander of the New South Wales Police Force Organized Crime Squad, Detective Superintendent Peter Faux, said the result was a great example of how law enforcement is working together to disrupt the international drug trade.
Det Supt Faux said: “The partnership between both authorities in Australia, and abroad, was the reason police were able to stop a sophisticated attempt at importing drugs via air freight into Australia and hold those responsible accountable.
“Serious and organized criminal networks often have no borders, which is why working collaboratively with our international counterparts is so important to tackle what is a global issue,” Faux said.
The couple was earlier accused of arranging the murder of their 11-year-old adopted son Gopal Sejani for an insurance pay-out in 2017.
The pair from Hanwell travelled to Gujarat to adopt Gopal in 2015, promising him a better life in London.