Operation Hard Ball: US showdown with India’s global gangsters

The US decision to indict jailed Indian gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his alleged North American associate, Satinderjeet Singh (“Goldy Brar”), for allegedly directing the 2023 assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada is more than another organized crime prosecution. Unsealed as part of the multinational Operation Hard Ball, the indictments signal a broader shift in how Western governments are responding to criminal networks whose activities increasingly intersect with national security, foreign policy and international law enforcement. Coordinated by authorities in the United States, Canada and Europe, the operation resulted in charges against 37 defendants allegedly linked to three India-based transnational organized crime groups. Prosecutors allege the networks were involved in murder-for-hire, extortion, racketeering, narcotics trafficking, firearms offenses and kidnappings while operating across India, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Investigators arrested 24 suspects, executed dozens of search warrants, and seized roughly 1,000 kilograms of cocaine, 1 kilogram of heroin, firearms and cash; several suspects remain fugitives. The allegations will ultimately be tested in court. Even so, Operation Hard Ball already represents one of the largest coordinated Western law-enforcement actions targeting India-linked transnational criminal organizations. Beyond the criminal charges, it raises broader questions about diaspora security, transnational repression and how states respond when domestic criminal networks acquire an international reach. Gangland assassination The most consequential aspect of the indictments goes beyond the allegation that Bishnoi and Brar ordered the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a Sikh gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia. What matters more is what prosecutors allege about the sophistication and operational reach of the organization. According to the federal indictment, Bishnoi allegedly directed operations while imprisoned in India, communicating through smuggled mobile phones. If these allegations are substantiated in court, they would illustrate how organized criminal groups can exploit institutional weaknesses to coordinate violence across jurisdictions despite the incarceration of their leadership. Equally significant is the breadth of the alleged criminal enterprise. Prosecutors describe networks simultaneously involved in targeted killings, narcotics trafficking, extortion, firearms offenses, money laundering and international logistics. This reflects a wider trend identified by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which has repeatedly warned that organized crime is becoming increasingly transnational, technologically enabled and deeply integrated into global financial and logistical networks. As a result, democratic governments increasingly view organized crime through a national security lens rather than as a conventional policing challenge. Criminal organizations capable of intimidating diaspora communities, financing violence, exploiting financial systems and operating across multiple jurisdictions can affect domestic security and foreign policy simultaneously. Canada’s designation of the Bishnoi gang as a terrorist entity in 2025 reflects this evolving approach. Similar debates have emerged over Latin American cartels operating across borders, Balkan criminal organizations active throughout Europe and East Asian syndicates involved in cyber-enabled financial crime. These comparisons are not intended to equate the organizations but to illustrate a broader policy shift: transnational organized crime is increasingly treated as a strategic threat requiring intelligence coordination, international partnerships and whole-of-government responses rather than traditional law-enforcement measures alone. Reputation test For more than two decades, India has projected itself as a responsible security partner and an important contributor to regional stability. That image has been reinforced through expanding defense cooperation with the United States, participation in the Quad, growing intelligence exchanges with Western partners and an increasingly prominent role in the Indo-Pacific security architecture. The Nijjar case has complicated that picture. Former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in 2023 that Canadian authorities were investigating credible allegations linking Indian government agents to the assassination. India rejected those allegations, and the newly unsealed US indictment does not accuse the Indian government of involvement. Instead, prosecutors focus specifically on members of the Bishnoi criminal organization. New Delhi is therefore likely to argue that the case concerns organized crime rather than state conduct and should not be interpreted as a reflection of India’s broader security institutions or strategic partnerships. That position is reinforced by the fact that the US indictment does not allege official state involvement. Yet the indictments raise broader institutional questions regardless of where legal responsibility ultimately lies. Prosecutors allege that the organization maintained operational capabilities despite its leader’s incarceration and that some defendants allegedly leveraged relationships with corrupt local officials to facilitate criminal activity. If supported during judicial proceedings, such allegations would invite closer scrutiny of prison administration, institutional oversight and the effectiveness of law-enforcement agencies in disrupting sophisticated criminal organizations. India’s international reputation increasingly hinges on confidence in its institutions, alongside economic growth and military capability. For governments investing in long-term Indo-Pacific security partnerships, effective governance, accountability and the rule of law are integral to strategic trust. Although the indictments target alleged criminal actors rather than the Indian state, the case is nevertheless likely to increase congressional and policy scrutiny in Washington regarding transnational repression, law-enforcement cooperation and institutional accountability within one of America’s most important Indo-Pacific partners. Transnational response Operation Hard Ball illustrates how democratic states are adapting to increasingly interconnected security threats. The investigation brought together the FBI, the US Department of Justice, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and European law-enforcement agencies through intelligence sharing, synchronized arrests and parallel prosecutions. It reflects a growing recognition that organized crime, illicit finance, transnational repression and foreign interference increasingly overlap and therefore require coordinated international responses. In recent years, policymakers and researchers have devoted increasing attention to transnational repression — the use of intimidation, coercion or violence against diaspora communities beyond national borders. While the allegations in the Bishnoi case should not be conflated with broader theories of state-directed repression, the investigation demonstrates why democratic governments are paying closer attention to cross-border intimidation and the vulnerabilities created by globally connected criminal networks. Whether the actors emerge from Latin America, Eastern Europe, South Asia or elsewhere, the underlying challenge is remarkably similar: criminal organizations have globalized far more rapidly than many national law-enforcement systems. Operation Hard Ball suggests governments are beginning to narrow that gap through deeper intelligence sharing, joint investigations and coordinated prosecutions. For India, the broader implications extend beyond the outcome of a single criminal case. As strategic cooperation with the United States, Canada, Europe and other Indo-Pacific partners continues to deepen, expectations regarding institutional accountability, intelligence cooperation and criminal justice are also likely to increase. Demonstrating the ability to investigate sophisticated criminal organizations and strengthen institutional safeguards will remain an important element of sustaining international confidence. Ultimately, the significance of Operation Hard Ball lies less in the fate of any individual defendant than in what it reveals about the changing character of international security. The indictments neither resolve every political controversy surrounding the Nijjar case nor establish conclusions beyond the allegations before the court. They do, however, underscore a broader reality: in an era of globalized criminal networks, states are judged as much by the institutions they build to prevent transnational violence, protect diaspora communities and cooperate with international partners as by the threats they confront. Saima Afzal is a researcher specializing in South Asian security, counterterrorism and broader geopolitical dynamics across the Middle East, Afghanistan, and the Indo-Pacific. She is currently a research scholar at Justus Liebig University, Germany.