The “For Brothers” Network
Peel Regional Police say one network fired roughly half of every round discharged from an illegal gun in the region this year. Seventeen men were charged with 106 offences in a single May 2026 takedown. Nobody — not the police, not the federal government, not a single reporter who has covered it — has publicly explained where the name comes from.
“For Brothers” is the name Peel Regional Police give to an extortion network they say operated across Brampton, Mississauga and Caledon, with members in British Columbia and California, and which they allege targeted South Asian business owners — restaurants and trucking companies above all — with escalating gunfire and arson when demands were refused.
On 25 May 2026, Peel announced the takedown: seventeen men arrested, 106 criminal charges, twenty-four incidents, sixteen of them violent. It is the largest extortion case Peel Regional Police have announced.
The Takedown
The investigation was a Joint Forces Operation that commenced in December 2025, run by Peel’s Extortion Task Force — a roughly thirty-officer unit created in 2023 — with the Ontario Provincial Police, the Canada Border Services Agency, the FBI and FINTRAC. The Surrey Police Service and the Edmonton Police Service provided assistance. Search warrants were executed across multiple locations in April 2026.
- 17 men arrested, the majority of whom police say have ties to For Brothers
- 106 criminal charges — including 11 counts of extortion and 75 firearm offences
- 24 incidents connected to the accused; 16 violent incidents linked to the network, including arson and multiple shootings
- 324 rounds discharged across those 16 violent incidents
- 6 firearms seized, along with illicit drugs, multiple cell phones, SIM cards and fraudulent identification cards
The seizure profile is worth pausing on. Multiple phones, multiple SIM cards and fraudulent identification are not the inventory of an ordinary street crew. Police have not explained what they take the items to show, but that combination is consistent with an operation structured so that the people making the calls and the people firing the shots are kept separate from one another.
Police allege that two of the accused carried out a shooting and arson at a residential address in Caledon, then — minutes later — a second shooting at a business in Brampton. Neither allegation has been tested in court.
If the allegation is made out, the two-target sequence in a single night is what would distinguish this from opportunistic violence — less a pair of crimes than a message, timed and delivered.
The Number That Travelled
Deputy Chief Nick Milinovich told reporters on 25 May that network members are believed responsible for roughly half of the 620 rounds discharged from illegal firearms in Peel Region in 2026 to date. That is internally consistent with the 324-round figure in the release.
It is worth being exact about what the figure measures, because it has been widely compressed. It is a proportion of rounds fired, not of shootings. Those are different metrics, and no source supports the stronger version.
Chief Nishan Duraiappah: “The violence was not random. They were specifically targeted and escalated over time.”
Chief Duraiappah: “This investigation is far beyond Peel. It has ties to British Columbia… as well as the United States and India.”
Deputy Chief Nick Milinovich: “Each bullet represents a life that could have been lost and a tremendous amount of fear and concern created in our community.”
Deputy Chief Milinovich: “Their business model was based on fear, their tools were violence, and their target was our community.”
Det. Brian Lorette: “The For Brothers Gang remains a focus for investigators.”
The Accused
Peel released seventeen names on 25 May 2026. The force did not publish a per-accused charge list, so individual charges are known only where secondary reporting has supplied them.
Iqbal Singh Bhagria, 25, Brampton
Akashdeep Singh, 24, Norval
Ravinder Singh, 25, Surrey, B.C. — two counts of conspiracy to commit an indictable offence of discharging a firearm
Jashanbir Singh, 21, Surrey, B.C. — assault; extortion
Dilawarpreet Singh, 26, Brampton
Mandeep Singh, 21, Brampton
Prabhdeep Sohal, 22, Brampton
Partapbir Ghuman, 22, Brampton
Ajaydeep Singh, 29, Brampton
Navroop Singh, 24, Brampton
Rajan Singh, 28, Barrie
Amritjot Singh, 22, Brampton
Jashanpreet Singh, 22, Brampton
Guneet Guneet, 27, Brampton
Sukhwinder Singh, 32, Brampton
Mohinder Singh, 30, Brampton
Gautam Gautam, 22, Manteca, California
All presumed innocent. Names reproduced exactly as released by Peel Regional Police, including single-name individuals rendered with the name doubled — that is the force’s own convention, not a transcription error.
The distribution is twelve from Brampton, one from Norval, one from Barrie, two from Surrey and one from Manteca, California. The age range is 21 to 32, with a median around 24.
One limiting fact matters for the British Columbia angle: the Surrey Police Service stated that neither Surrey man faces charges in connection with extortion-related violence in Surrey. SPS contributed intelligence and information-sharing to the Peel investigation. The two files are adjacent, not merged.
The Edmonton Arrest
On 2 July 2026, Peel laid further charges in a case that reaches into Alberta — and, unusually, one where two separate police services put the network’s name on the record.
21 April 2026, approximately 2:50 a.m. — police say a Brampton business was shot at and the suspect fled in a silver Honda Civic. Fourteen shell casings were recovered.
6 May 2026, approximately 8 p.m. — a man leaving his residence is approached. Police allege the accused pointed a firearm at him, but the weapon malfunctioned. The victim escaped uninjured. The suspect fled in a grey Acura Integra.
4 May 2026 — an Edmonton Police Service traffic stop of a Dodge Charger yields controlled substances and a loaded firearm. Three men are arrested. Singh is later released on bail.
28 May and 23 June 2026 — EPS executes search warrants at his residence, turning up what the service described as evidence consistent with vehicle re-VINning operations tied to extortion-related crime. On 23 June he is arrested on a Canada-wide warrant.
26 June 2026 — returned to Ontario.
2 July 2026 — charged by Peel with extortion and conspiracy to commit murder. Denied bail and remanded into custody.
See our reporting: Edmonton Traffic Stop Exposes “For Brothers” Gang Member Wanted for Murder Conspiracy.
The Edmonton Police Service release describes Singh as having “suspected ties to the ‘For Brothers’ gang, an organized criminal network linked to shootings and extortion which targeted South Asian business owners and community members across the Greater Toronto Area, Canada and the United States.” Note the hedge — suspected ties. EPS also named its own framework for this class of investigation, Project Insight. That is an Edmonton project, distinct from the Peel operation and from EPS’s earlier extortion probe, Project Gaslight.
What Police Have Not Said
Two things are consistently attributed to this network in public discussion that no police agency has actually stated.
The Bishnoi gang was listed as a terrorist entity by Canada in September 2025, and the two stories occupy the same space in the news cycle. But:
- The 25 May 2026 Peel release does not mention Bishnoi, Lawrence Bishnoi, Goldy Brar or the Bambiha gang.
- The 2 July 2026 Peel release does not mention Bishnoi.
- The 2 July 2026 EPS release does not mention Bishnoi.
- FINTRAC’s April 2026 bulletin — the one federal document that names the Bishnoi and Bambiha gangs as primary actors in diaspora extortion — does not name For Brothers, and notes that copycat operations also exist.
The closest official statement toward India is Chief Duraiappah’s line that the investigation “has ties to British Columbia… as well as the United States and India.” That asserts a geographic tie. It does not name an organization.
No police agency has publicly linked For Brothers to the Bishnoi gang. Where that link appears, it is inference. This publication does not make it.
The “student visas to shootings-for-hire” framing that attached itself to this story originated in independent analysis of the broader extortion phenomenon, not in documented For Brothers recruitment. Peel police made no recruitment claims at all. No ages, no per-job payment figures and no immigration specifics for the seventeen accused were released in support of it.
The cohort is young — that much is visible in the released ages. Everything beyond that is currently unsupported.
Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown said publicly after the takedown that “all those charged are not even Canadian citizens.” The police release does not support that. Peel stated that six of the seventeen may face immigration action after their criminal cases conclude, and that CBSA separately arrested and detained six individuals — three removed, two in CBSA custody, one released by the Immigration and Refugee Board on conditions.
The immigration status of the full group has not been established publicly.
Method
What Peel has documented about how the network worked is narrow but specific: escalating pressure on businesses that refused to pay, with the same premises targeted repeatedly; shootings at businesses and at residences; arson. Restaurants and trucking companies were named as targeted sectors.
The wider pattern — described by FINTRAC in April 2026 as a characterisation of diaspora extortion in Canada generally, not of this network specifically — runs as follows: anonymous calls or messages over encrypted chat applications demanding large payments; escalation to gunfire at homes and storefronts, and arson, when demands are refused; rental cars and short-term accommodations used to stage attacks. Initial demands range from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars, with victims often negotiating down to smaller recurring payments. Money moves by e-transfer, cash deposit, cheque, cryptocurrency and cash delivery under duress.
Peel Regional Police introduce “For Brothers” in the opening sentence of their release as an established identifier, unquoted and unexplained. So does the Edmonton Police Service. So does every outlet that covered the takedown.
Nobody has said whether it is self-applied, a police label, a social-media handle or a translation. No agency has publicly explained the origin of the name. Until one does, this profile will not guess at it.
The Policy Response
Peel’s extortion problem became a federal file over the winter of 2025–26. On 16 December 2025, Brampton council unanimously approved a motion from Deputy Mayor Harkirat Singh seeking federal action, arguing that regional extortion rates met or exceeded the levels that had justified intervention in British Columbia.
13 January 2026 — Brampton extortion summit. Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree, Secretary of State for Combatting Crime Ruby Sahota and Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner announced up to $1 million to Peel Regional Police for combatting extortion, victim services and expanding the Extortion Task Force, plus $4 million over four years for a Regional Integrated Drug Enforcement Team under Canada’s Border Plan.
Sahota, on the region: “For people in Peel, it’s not a matter of if, it’s become a matter of when.”
19 February 2026 — Finance Canada announced five measures, all FINTRAC-centred: surged financial-intelligence resources; a Countering Extortion Partnership with banks, credit unions and regulators; FINTRAC liaison officers deployed to police in Ontario, B.C. and Alberta; a Targeted Indicator Profile issued to financial institutions; and published money-laundering typologies.
Ontario has no standalone provincial extortion task force equivalent to British Columbia’s. The provincial contribution is grant funding rather than a dedicated body.
Agencies on the File
Operational Status | Disrupted — 17 charged May 2026; Peel says the investigation remains ongoing
Geographic Footprint | Brampton, Mississauga and Caledon, with accused resident in Surrey B.C. and Manteca, California; police also cite ties to India. No activity documented in any other province
Court Status | Largely unknown. Only Safaldeep Singh’s status is documented — bail denied, remanded
Bishnoi Connection | Not alleged by any police agency
Origin of the Name | Unexplained by any agency
Outstanding Reporting | Brampton courthouse records for the 17 accused; whether Peel attributes any organizational link
- Peel Regional Police — “Extortion Task Force takes down international criminal group targeting South Asian community” (25 May 2026)
- Peel Regional Police — “Extortion Task Force Lays Extortion and Murder-Related Charges Linked to ‘For Brothers’” (2 July 2026)
- Edmonton Police Service — “Man with ties to international extortion network arrested in Edmonton” (2 July 2026)
- CP24 (Codi Wilson) — Reporting of Deputy Chief Milinovich’s rounds-discharged figure (25 May 2026)
- Global News (Rachel Morgan) — Charge breakdown and Peel 2025 extortion caseload (25 May 2026)
- Surrey Now-Leader (Anna Burns) — Identification of the Surrey accused and Surrey Police Service statement (26 May 2026)
- FINTRAC — Special Bulletin on money laundering associated with extortion directed at Canada’s South Asian diaspora (April 2026)
- Public Safety Canada — Brampton extortion summit announcement (13 January 2026)
- Department of Finance Canada — Anti-extortion measures announcement (19 February 2026)
- Government of British Columbia — Provincial extortion task force announcement (17 September 2025)
- City of Brampton — Council motion on extortion and transnational crime (16 December 2025)
