ISLAMABAD: Three Indian-origin men facing drug-smuggling charges in the United States as part of an international crackdown on an India-based organized crime drug-trafficking network could seek to have their case tried in Canada instead, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) said, citing a British Columbia Supreme Court ruling. 


Gurtej Singh Smagh, Jaskarn Baghri, and Ravinder Singh Dhanda were arrested in British Columbia in July as part of Operation Hard Ball, a multinational crackdown targeting three India-based transnational organized crime groups.


CBC reported that the three men are wanted by US authorities over alleged transnational cocaine and methamphetamine trafficking and are facing extradition proceedings in Canada.


According to the US indictment, Dhanda allegedly operated a drug-distribution network that moved cocaine and methamphetamine from the United States into Canada, using long-haul and farm trucks to transport drugs from the Los Angeles area toward the US-Canada border.


US prosecutors allege the network transported hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine each week. Dhanda and 10 other defendants were charged in a separate indictment from those involving the Lawrence Bishnoi and Jaggu Bhagwanpuria crime groups.


The Canadian Press reported that the men's lawyers could seek to have the case prosecuted in Canada rather than extraditing them to the United States. British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth McDonald, however, described that possibility as "speculative at this point."


The court proceedings also revealed that the men had objected to media coverage that they said created a "false impression" that they were connected to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, according to The Canadian Press.


Operation Hard Ball

The arrests came as part of a much larger US-led operation against India-based organized crime groups.


The US Justice Department said last month that the operation involved law enforcement agencies in the United States, Canada and Europe that had been investigating criminal organizations involved in racketeering, targeted killings, shootings, extortion and drug trafficking.


The department said 24 were arrested in the United States, Canada and Europe, while dozens of others have been charged, including two who US officials say ran their global criminal syndicates while in prison in India.


"Transnational criminal gangs who spread fear, drugs, and violence will face the full force of justice and the weight of the federal government," First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli said.


Among the allegations in the indictments is the 2023 killing of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent campaigner for Khalistan, a separatist movement seeking an independent homeland for Sikhs.


US prosecutors allege that Lawrence Bishnoi, an Indian national from Punjab who is imprisoned in India, ordered Nijjar's killing from his prison cell. Canada designated Bishnoi's organization a terrorist entity in 2025.


Dhanda, meanwhile, is among 11 people charged in the alleged drug-smuggling operation involving the movement of large quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine from the US into Canada.


"Today’s coordinated operation strikes at the heart of three brutal transnational organizations that have terrorized families, exploited communities, and stolen lives through ruthless acts of violence in the US and abroad," Patrick Grandy, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office, said.