The B.C. Extortion Task Force has reported 111 foreign nationals to immigration authorities, taken over 32 files and logged more than 1,000 exhibits of evidence in the four months since it was created, according to an update shared Tuesday by the B.C. RCMP.
Despite these efforts, however, the extortion problem in the Lower Mainland remains significant, with Surrey police alone reporting 35 extortion attempts so far this month, including eight that have involved gunfire.
Combative news conference
At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Asst. Comm. John Brewer struck a defensive tone as he fielded questions from reporters, who repeatedly asked—in sometimes provocative terms—why the situation does not seem to be improving.
In response to a question that included the phrase “shootings galore,” Brewer took issue with media characterizations of the extortion issue.
“To say that there’s shootings galore, there’s shootings every day, to say that part without then saying the advances we’ve made in these investigations, without talking to people that we’ve worked with to make arrests, I think unnecessarily causes angst in the community,” he said.
“I know people are upset. I know people are scared. My job here is to assure them that every police officer in this province—especially in the Lower Mainland and that is part of this task force—is working around the clock to ensure their safety.”
And yet, within the South Asian community that has primarily been the target of extortion attempts, there remains a sense that police have been unable to stop these incidents, multiple reporters countered, in follow-up questions.
This perceived lack of progress has led some in the community to believe police cannot ensure their safety, and that they need to arm themselves and take the law into their own hands, Brewer was told.
The victims of an extortion-related shooting in Surrey’s Bear Creek neighbourhood over the weekend are, themselves, under investigation for possibly firing back at the extortionists. Brewer was repeatedly asked about this on Tuesday.
“When someone feels that they’re so at risk that they have to take the law into their own hands, here’s what I would say to them: Don’t,” he said. “You’re risking harm (not only) to yourself, but to others. Let the police do their job.”
Wade Deisman, an associate professor of criminology at the University of the Fraser Valley, said he believes the Bear Creek victims are not the first to attempt to take matters into their own hands.
Rather, he said, it’s the first time police have acknowledged the presence of that train of thought among some members of the public.
To Deisman, that acknowledgment signals that the extortion issue has expanded into a “public safety crisis.”
“What I mean by that is, when the public—or members of the public, communities of the public—see fit to take matters into their own hands because the police either aren’t able or aren’t willing or aren’t capable of protecting them, it really means that the fundamental kind of agreement between the police and the public is broken,” Deisman said.
‘Not a crisis’
During his news conference, Brewer repeatedly referred to the situation as serious and said police are taking it seriously, but he explicitly rejected the framing of it as a crisis.
“There’s not a crisis,” Brewer said. “A crisis is what’s happening out there with drug overdoses. That’s a crisis. People are dying. This is a threat to public safety, absolutely, and I take it very seriously.”
Asked later in the news conference what would have to happen for him to use the word crisis to describe the extortion threat, Brewer reframed his argument by reiterating that public safety issues are taken seriously.
“You’ve got a lot of people out there now that are so afraid that they are considering taking the law into their own hands, and that cannot happen,” he said.
For Deisman, it’s precisely that dynamic that makes the situation a public safety crisis.
“I beg to differ,” Deisman said, referencing Brewer’s “not a crisis” comment.
“Any time the public feels that they have to take measures into their own hands, that’s a crisis of credibility for the police and law enforcement services.”
Brewer insisted that police are making good progress on their investigations and are “hunting” the extortionists.
“They know we’re hunting them,” he said. “Make no mistake. They are changing their M.O. because we are hunting them. And we will continue to hunt them. We will root them out from every dark corner they try to hide in, and we will either put them before the courts, or they will be deported.”
111 foreign nationals
Brewer’s news conference marked four months since the B.C. Extortion Task Force began its official operations, though authorities were working collaboratively on the extortion issue before the task force got going.
In its news release, the task force said investigators have been working to “establish linkages” between the 32 files the task force has taken on from jurisdictions across the Lower Mainland, police said, adding that they’re looking to “advance investigations towards enforcement into identified cluster groups.”
Each new extortion-related file opened by a B.C. police department is assessed for connections to the previously identified series of incidents under investigation by the task force, Mounties said.
“The task force is also working extensively with policing partners across Canada and supporting the ongoing work of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to assess and enforce immigration violations,” police said.
According to the task force, investigators have referred 111 foreign nationals to the CBSA “who may be inadmissible for Immigration and Refugee Protection Act related offences.”
Nine of those individuals have been removed from Canada, the task force said. That’s four more than had been deported as of Dec. 12, when Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke expressed outrage that alleged extortionists were making refugee claims to avoid removal from the country.
- Read more: Surrey mayor ‘appalled’ by extortion suspects’ refugee claims as police investigate another shooting
At the time, the CBSA said a total of 15 extortion suspects had made refugee claims, and stressed that refugee claimants who are suspected to be inadmissible to Canada on “serious grounds” face admissibility hearings before their refugee claims proceed.
“Making a refugee claim does not exempt lawbreakers from the consequences of their actions,” the task force said in its update Tuesday.
“The CBSA continues to aggressively pursue the removal of extortionists attempting to evade justice by abusing Canadians’ concern for genuine refugees in need of protection.”
Asked whether the task force has been working with law enforcement in India to deal with the extortion issue, Brewer said the task force is focused on B.C. and it’s up to federal RCMP to liaise with foreign jurisdictions.
He touted the CBSA partnership, however, and noted that B.C. authorities continue to work with their national counterparts on the foreign origins of some of the extortionists.
Brewer also noted that some of those arrested by the task force and by local police in B.C. have been Canadian citizens, and said “it’s a mix” of local, national and international groups behind the extortions.
“This is not one group or one individual,” he said. “These are multiple groups conducting these extortions, and we are dealing with them, and the task force takes those that have the most threat to public safety.”
Seven individuals have been criminally charged in relation to task force files, Brewer said. That total is in addition to other charges secured by municipal police in connection to other extortion investigations that aren’t among the task force’s files. He did not specify how many criminal cases fall into that category.
‘Complex investigations’
Police have also obtained “almost 100 judicial authorizations” and executed search warrants across the Lower Mainland, the B.C. RCMP’s Southeast District and Alberta.
Brewer said the task force has taken on some of the eight Surrey extortion shooting files that have been recorded so far this year.
Suspects have been identified “across the board,” he said, and police are working to ensure that they have thorough cases that can withstand the charge approval process and ultimately lead to convictions.
“These are complex investigations,” Brewer said. “They take time to be done properly. I am not going to allow any police officers under my command or within this task force to cut corners and take chances that when we get to court, these cases will fall apart.”
He cited this concern again when asked by a reporter about the possibility of publishing public warnings—as police in B.C. have done in the past with suspected gang members—about suspected extortionists.
Notably, however, Brewer didn’t rule out this step, and just hours after his news conference, Surrey Police Service Chief Norm Lipinski announced in a social media post that his department would be sharing photos of accused extortionists in the future.
“Going forward, we will endeavour to release the names and photos of individuals who have been arrested and charged, specifically when we require additional information from the public, or when that individual is found to pose a significant threat to public safety,” Lipinski said in the video message.
The measure was one of three Lipinski said the SPS is taking to respond to the surge in extortion cases the city has experienced in 2026 so far. The other two are asking the province for more officers and requesting the presence of the RCMP’s Air 1 helicopter over Surrey during nighttime hours.
With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Ben Nesbit
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