New Delhi: Known by his aliases ‘Doctor,’ ‘Rocket,’ and ‘Ritz Carlton’, gangster Garinder Singh Deo was the lynchpin purchasing bulk quantities of cocaine, heroin, and other controlled substances from Mexico-based sources for distribution to clients in Canada and the eastern United States.
It went well until the “overt operation” reached the law enforcement agencies through a planted mole in June 2025. Deo was indicted by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) after its international crackdown under Operation Hard Ball on organised crime and was arrested 7 July from France.
The 40-year-old was named in the indictment against the Jaggu Bhagwanpuria gang and is the fourth Canadian to be arrested under the international investigation spanning the US, Canada and Europe. Jailed gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria is an associate-turned-rival of Bishnoi, and founded his own criminal enterprise in Punjab.
On 10 July, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said that the Federal Policing Pacific Region confirmed that Deo was arrested and taken into custody in France, where he was awaiting extradition to the US on indictments related to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Operation Hard Ball.
Deo, according to the Director of Civil Forfeiture in British Columbia, was linked to organised crime, international drug trafficking, money laundering and violence, and was a target of the RCMP-FBI investigation that led to Operation Hard Ball.
Bulk quantities of drugs
Though not charged as a member or associate of this criminal group, Deo “allegedly helped enrich the group by purchasing bulk quantities of cocaine and heroin that were to be shipped from Southern California to the eastern United States with the assistance of members and associates of the Bhagwanpuria enterprise.”
Deo along with Sahibdeep Singh Anmol, Gurpeet Singh, Mandeep Kaur, Luis Angel Salas-Puebla, Miguel Angel Ortiz II, Hardeep Singh, and others conspired to distribute controlled substances in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties and elsewhere, the DOJ added.
The consignment included at least 5 kg of a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of cocaine, at least 1 kg or more of a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of heroin. “This included the attempted shipment in June 2025 of 99.2 kg of cocaine and 1 kg of heroin that law enforcement ultimately intercepted,” the DOJ said.
The drug route
Each of the accused indicted above had designated roles. Apart from buying bulk quantities of controlled substances from Mexico-based sources, Deo would “contract with other drug trafficking organisations to transport bulk quantities of cocaine, heroin, and other controlled substances from California to the US-Canada border and the eastern United States.”
Salas-Puebla, the DOJ said, would then deliver bulk quantities of cocaine and heroin on behalf of Mexico-based drug trafficking organisations to other drug trafficking organisations, including Deo’s.
The other accused would coordinate logistics for receiving, storing, transporting, and delivering bulk quantities of cocaine and heroin. They would collect, store, transport, and deliver bulk quantities across the US in a long-haul semitruck.
Ortiz would receive bulk quantities of cocaine and heroin in the eastern US on behalf of a drug trafficking organisation purchasing them from Deo, the DOJ said.
The bust
Further, the indictment said that the accused committed various overt acts within California and elsewhere.
In January 2025, Deo provided his contact information to a contact, identified as CI-1 in the indictment papers and was a confidential informant working with law enforcement, for purchase and transportation of bulk quantities of controlled substances in the Los Angeles area, according to the indictment.
On 29 May that year, Deo contacted CI-1 and “requested assistance” with transporting a bulk quantity of cocaine from the LA area to the eastern United States. It was followed by Deo providing a telephone number and serial number for a dollar bill received by him from CI-1 to a representative for the supplier group for collecting and transporting the consignment, on 1 June, it said.
The remaining accused agreed to transport approximately 80 to 100 kg of cocaine from LA, California to Indianapolis, Indiana at a price of $500 per 25 kg, the DOJ said, adding that they assisted in coordinating the storage and transportation.
Mandeep Kaur delivered approximately 99.2 kg of a mixture and substance containing three detectable amounts of cocaine, and approximately one kilogram of heroin, to Greenfield, Indiana, it added.
“On 6 June, 2025, Deo instructed CI-1 that, moving forward, he wanted to ‘keep it busy’ and work with an organisation that was moving or otherwise supplying 12 kg of cocaine ‘a week’,” the indictment said.
Ortiz received the next day about 99.2 kg of a mixture and substance containing detectable amounts of cocaine, and approximately 1 kg of heroin, in a parking lot in Clinton, New Jersey.
The accused accepted $15,000 in payment for himself and other accused for their roles in transporting the cocaine and heroin load across the country, it added.
Shortly after law enforcement seized the same consignment that very day, Deo messaged CI-1 that “bro what happen they saying the guys got pinched (sic).” He then sent CI-1 a screenshot of a message he received stating “the work and Victor at the police station bro,” and then messaged saying “shit bro not good.”
A seven-count federal grand jury indictment charges 17 defendants (part of United States v. Bhagwanpuria, et al. case) with operating a criminal enterprise that engaged in murder-for-hire, drug trafficking, kidnappings, extortions, weapons trafficking, and other crimes around the world, including in the US, the indictment states.
“The indictment charges one count of racketeering conspiracy, one count of attempted Hobbs Act extortion, two counts of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, one count of distribution of cocaine, one count of conspiracy to engage in the business of dealing in firearms without a license, and one count of possession of a machine gun,” it further states.
(Edited by Tony Rai)