Foreign intelligence services are contracting out killings to gangs

globalnews.ca:

arrests of three suspected hitmen accused of killing a B.C. Sikh leader highlight an emerging security problem: foreign intelligence services are contracting their dirty work to the criminal underworld.Governments are increasingly accused of trying to silence and kill opponents outside their borders, and they are relying more and more on crime groups to do so, officials and experts told Global News.“Some states leverage criminal organizations to advance their objectives,” said Eric Balsam, a Canadian Security Intelligence Service spokesperson.“The use of criminal elements can permit plausible deniability and generate resources to advance threat activities.”Iran’s intelligence service was recently accused of hiring Canadian Hell’s Angels to kill dissidents in the United States.

Indian intelligence, meanwhile, allegedly employed a drug trafficker to kill a U.S. Sikh activist.In the latest alleged case, announced by the RCMP on Friday, three Indian nationals arrested in Edmonton were accused of gunning down Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C.

on June 18, 2023.Karanpreet Singh, 28, Kamalpreet Singh, 22, and Karan Brar, 22, have been charged with murder and conspiracy in Nijjar’s killing, according to charges filed in B.C. court.A source familiar with the matter told Global News the killing was a murder-for-hire and was believed to be tied to India’s Bishnoi crime group, which has been implicated in drugs, extortion and killings.Its leader, Lawrence Bishnoi, has been imprisoned in India since 2014 but continues to operate from behind bars, said Shinder Purewal, a political science professor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.“Many people probably haven’t heard this name, but in India he’s like an idol,” Purewal said.Willing