Surrey police have doubled the number of arrests made in extortion shootings over the past week, even as the number of cases continue to increase.
Criticism against police has been mounting for months as many business owners from the Punjabi community in B.C. live in fear from shootings at their front doors, threats of violence if money isn’t paid and, in some cases, a loss of their livelihood as a result.
But this year is showing signs of progress. A Surrey police spokesman says the success on the extortions isn’t an accident, but credited putting more police on the ground at night in targeted neighbourhoods.
“It has extra officers working essentially overtime to provide extra resources specifically dedicated to extortion-related investigations,” Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton said of what the police call Project Assurance.
Officers working for the project are concentrated in areas where extortion-related violence has previously occurred and where police analysts believe it could happen again, Houghton said, but didn’t provide details.
“The longer this goes on, and the more incidents we have, and the more investigations that unfold, the more information and intelligence police are able to gather and develop,” Houghton said. “There are many things that are going hand-in-hand behind the scenes that allow us to better direct our resources. It’s not a case of being lucky and being in the right place at the right time, although we are in the right place at the right time. But there are reasons for that.”
In the most recent extortion shooting, three suspects were arrested.
Officers were patrolling the Crescent Beach neighbourhood at about 3:50 a.m. on Sunday when reports came in about shots being fired and a small fire outside a home near Crescent Road and 132nd Street.
A suspicious vehicle was spotted driving nearby and three people jumped out and ran. Soon after, three suspects were arrested at 28th Avenue and 140th Street as they got into a ride-hailing vehicle.
The fire at the property that had been damaged with bullets was extinguished before it spread to the house. Two vehicles have also been seized by police.
Harjot Singh, 21, Taranveer Singh, 19, and Dayajeet Singh Billing, 21, have been charged with discharging a firearm into a place, and are being held in jail.
Asked about the facial injuries to two of the suspects, Houghton said they refused to respond to verbal commands from officers during what he called a “high-risk arrest.”
“With our officers not knowing if one or more of the men were still armed with firearms, our officers had to use physical force to gain compliance and safely take them into custody,” said Houghton.
No officers were injured, he said.
While increasing patrols are part of police strategy, Houghton wouldn’t say by how much the patrols or the number of officers have increased.
He also didn’t know the cost of the stepped-up policing, but the force said it was being covered under its general budget.
“The majority of the officers are either permanently assigned or have had their shifts adjusted, while some are working overtime to augment and increase the number of officers each night,” an email said.
The initiative produced results last week as well, when
two other men were arrested and charged
.
Those suspects, Harshdeep Singh, 20, and Hanspreet Singh, 21, have been charged with occupying a vehicle knowing a firearm was present, while Harshdeep Singh was also charged with one count of dangerously operating a motor vehicle.
In that incident, officers heard what they believed to be gunshots while patrolling the Newton area of 129th Street and 84th Avenue just before 4 a.m. on Jan. 26. Police found a suspicious vehicle, arrested the two men and found a loaded firearm.
All five of the recent suspects are foreign nationals and the police have informed the Canada Border Services Agency.
Since the start of 2026, 46 extortions have been reported to Surrey police as of Monday, with 10 of those in the past week. Eleven of the reported extortion attempts involved shootings, three of them in the past week.
A total of 29 people have been threatened; 17 of those are repeat victims.
“When we look at the victims, some of them will be threatened one or more times in quick succession … Others I’ve seen, it’s been many months in between,” said Houghton. “I don’t know if there’s a level of randomness there. That is obviously something that if the people behind this would like to shed some light on it, we’d be happy to listen to them.”
Of note is the extortion-related arson, which hadn’t been an issue with extortions before this weekend, Houghton said.
With more than 200 cases from just the last 10 months, Houghton did admit the investigations will likely take years for the police to close. Difficulties arise for extortions specifically, he added, because investigators believe most or all involve an international element, with the threats often coming through foreign phone numbers.
“For everyone involved, they (investigations) can’t happen quick enough, and we obviously know that, but we have to follow the evidence and make sure every ‘I’ is dotted and ‘T’ is crossed to give Crown the best chance of a successful prosecution,” Houghton said.
With files from Joe Ruttle
