Hassan Ahmad
On July 7, 2026, the US Department of Justice unveiled Operation Hard Ball, a massive multinational initiative that marks far more than a typical local gang bust. Instead, authorities characterised it as a sweeping global crackdown against powerful, India-based transnational organised crime groups operating across the United States, Canada, and Europe. A total of 37 defendants have been criminally charged across three separate federal indictments, resulting in the immediate arrest of 24 individuals, including 11 in California alone. This operation signals a pivotal historical milestone. It represents the very first time Western law enforcement agencies have formally entered into the legal record of the active presence of India-based gangs. The unsealed indictments officially document how these groups use jail-run command systems to direct operations from thousands of miles away, engage in the violent targeting of diaspora communities, and execute sophisticated cross-border criminal operations. For years, New Delhi has projected itself internationally as a victim of cross-border extremism. Operation Hard Ball forces a different question: what happens when criminal networks operating from Indian soil, and allegedly from Indian prisons, begin exporting violence abroad? Syndicates charged for criminal activities are the Bishnoi Gang, the Bhagwanpuria ring, and the Dhanda Network. The DOJ-indicted Bishnoi gang, led by Lawrence Bishnoi from a Punjab prison, allegedly operated an international criminal network by exploiting social media to pose as a patriot while using contraband phones to coordinate crimes. The syndicate is accused of extorting the Indian diaspora in California and trafficking over 500 kilograms of cocaine, involving senior figures like Goldy Brar and Rohit Godara. More information is available in the Department of Justice announcement. Gangs are allegedly involved in violent transnational crimes, including the June 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, drug trafficking, and corruption of law enforcement.
Operating from an Indian jail and leveraging vast global networks, these groups were accused of targeting diaspora members and smuggling hundreds of kilograms of illicit drugs across North America, resulting in numerous arrests and significant seizures. Operation Hard Ball and the US prosecution of Nikhil Gupta for a 2023 plot against Gurpatwant Singh Pannun reveal a pattern of Sikh diaspora intimidation and transnational violence linked to criminal proxies. Consequently, Canada designated the Bishnoi Gang as a terrorist entity on September 29, 2025, due to its involvement in murders and extortion against diaspora communities. New Delhi will likely respond by calling this ordinary gang crime, by pointing to Nijjar’s designation in India, and by noting the absence of a US allegation against the Indian state. That defence misses the point. The devastating question raised by Operation Hard Ball is institutional: how can two defendants allegedly run global criminal syndicates while imprisoned in India? How can smuggled cellphones, corrupt officials, and transnational extortion networks operate for years without deep failures of oversight, corruption, or facilitation? A country that lectures others on terrorism cannot evade scrutiny when Western law enforcement documents India-based networks allegedly linked to assassination, extortion, narcotics, firearms and diaspora intimidation. The frame must shift from “Khalistan” to rule of law, sovereignty, diaspora safety, transnational repression, and an organised crime-terror nexus. First, the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and European partners should follow Canada’s lead and examine terrorist designation, sanctions, asset freezes and travel bans against the Bishnoi network and similar India-based syndicates. Second, there must be full cooperation with US and Canadian judicial processes. A transparent inquiry is needed into how a jailed individual could allegedly direct international operations from an Indian prison. Third, diaspora communities deserve protection, not intimidation. Sikh groups, human rights organisations and Western media must now question India more aggressively on diaspora safety and the alleged use of criminal proxies. Operation Hard Ball has cracked India’s preferred security image. India can no longer present itself only as a victim of cross-border extremism while Western authorities are charging India-based networks with exporting fear, drugs, weapons and assassinations across continents. The phrase that must now define this moment is simple: India-based transnational criminal networks, diaspora intimidation, targeted killing on foreign soil, organised crime-terror nexus, jail-run command system, and Western law enforcement exposure have brought a multiplied shame for the Modi regime. The world has been shown the evidence. The question now is whether it will treat this as a local policing problem, or recognise that “Gangs of India” are a transnational security threat which merits a coordinated international response.
The writer is a student.
