Sukhnaaz Singh Sandhu was flagged by Canadian Immigration officials as a member of a violent Surrey-based criminal gang of international students called The Ruffians in 2020.

But he wasn’t deported until last month.

According to documents obtained by CBC News, police claim the 26-year-old spent the intervening years engaged in a “high-risk lifestyle” involving “firearms, fraud, stolen vehicles, flight from police and drive-by shooting incidents.”

He travelled from B.C. to Ontario to Edmonton, wracking up run-ins with police at every stop. Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) documents link him to suspects in a recent wave of extortions, including a man linked to a series of shootings at a Surrey cafe.

All the time, Sandhu was under the nominal supervision of immigration authorities, if not the actual control.

In a memo written last November, a Canada Border Services Agency officer described the catch-and-release cycle that saw Sandhu move in and out of custody as he awaited the outcome of the long process that ultimately resulted in his deportation to India last month.

“Subject has had over $45,000 in cash and performance bonds forfeited on previous release conditions, many violations while on the (electronic monitoring) program for curfew, battery charging and location violations,” the officer wrote.

“Subject has no regard for the extensive list of conditions he has been on. Therefore there is no alternatives to detention that currently exist that would mitigate the danger to the public.”

‘I have not always made positive choices’

A member of the IRB found Sandhu inadmissible to Canada for organized criminality last November in a decision he challenged unsuccessfully in Federal Court.

CBC News obtained records from that appeal after coming across Sandhu’s name in transcripts from a separate IRB hearing that saw an extortion suspect, Arshdeep Singh, removed from Canada nearly four years after he arrived on a student visa.

A review of Singh’s phone allegedly found links between the two men — including a video taken with Bandhu Maan Singh Sekhon, a suspect accused by police in Delhi of orchestrating shootings last year at a Surrey cafe owned by a Bollywood star.

Sandhu has not been directly accused in any extortion cases, but counsel for the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration cited his past as reason to suggest Singh was part of a larger network under investigation for a vast array of interconnected crimes.

The federal court documents provide a window into the links investigators are probing as they try to solve the extortion crisis plaguing Canadian communities.

They illustrate tensions between the CBSA, tasked with enforcing immigration and refugee matters, and the Immigration and Refugee Board, which decides on proceedings like detention and admissibility hearings and refugee claims.

And they also detail the challenges of prosecuting suspects like Sandhu — who argued he was never convicted of a crime in Canada, despite arrests, withdrawn charges and numerous investigations.

“I maintain that I have not engaged in organized criminality,” Sandhu said in an affidavit written from an Immigration holding centre in January.

“I acknowledge that I have not always made positive choices in who I have associated with and I regret those choices.”

From rags to ‘Ruffians’

Sandhu came to Canada in December 2016 when he was 17 years old, becoming a permanent resident two years later as a dependent of his mother.

In his telling, Sandhu attended school from January 2017 to October 2018, but “as a recent arrival from India, I experienced significant difficulty integrating into an adult education program and ultimately discontinued my studies.”

“During this period, I associated with individuals who later proved to be a negative influence,” Sandhu admitted in his affidavit, citing work in an Amazon warehouse, as a pizza delivery driver and as a personal trainer as proof of his “ongoing efforts to work lawfully.”

But authorities, including CBSA officers and police, claimed Sandhu’s record of police interactions suggested he was a member of the Ruffians, a group “involved in drug trafficking and other violent crimes” in the Surrey area.

They cited his chest tattoo of an AK-47 — the chosen logo of the gang — and pointed to social media posts as proof Sandhu was a gangster.

And at his admissibility hearing, counsel for the Minister of Immigration introduced an article from the crime blog “The Dirty News” which claimed Sandhu was “the guy that brought these Ruffians on the map.”

In a strange twist, The Dirty News itself was recently taken offline by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation when the blog’s founder was charged with conspiracy to commit murder in connection with allegations against accused drug smuggler Ryan Wedding.

But CBC News was able to retrieve the post cited at Sandhu’s hearing through an archival website.

The post describes Sandhu as “a very out-spoken, outrageous, chaotic, demonic, angry, monster, violent and COCKY individual that gave these guys the status that they have today.”

A spokesperson for B.C.’s Combined Special Forces Unit told CBC News Surrey RCMP’s gang enforcement team worked with the CBSA a number of years ago to disband The Ruffians.

And so Sandhu moved east, first to Ontario, where he faced stolen property and drug trafficking charges which were later withdrawn, and then to Edmonton.

Ignored conditions, new criminal charges

The court documents include dozens of “events” recorded by Edmonton’s CBSA office after they took carriage of Sandhu’s file in December 2023.

By that point, he was living under a curfew, released on hefty cash deposits secured by bondspersons, with his movements restricted by electronic monitoring.

Still, Sandhu was cited multiple times for failing to charge the battery on his monitor, for showing up late, for violating his exclusion zone and for missing his curfew.

CBSA officers were also in constant contact with Edmonton police, who questioned Sandhu about a firearm-related incident in August 2024 which appears to have involved a number of suspects — including Arshdeep Singh — under investigation for extortion and auto fraud.

In September 2025, a victim accused Sandhu and two others “in a fraud and uttering threats report involving a vehicle sale in which the victim paid for a vehicle and it was never received. The victim then received threatening phone calls.”

Sandhu was charged with uttering threats to cause bodily harm or death in October 2025, and later that same month his white Nissan Rogue was identified “for being a vehicle involved in a shooting event.”

By early November 2025, with a final decision on Sandhu’s admissibility to Canada still outstanding, the decision was made to take him into Immigration custody — for what turned out to be the last time.

“While awaiting a decision from the IRB member the subject has continued to partake in organized crime activities and events,” the CBSA memo explains.

“Subject is a danger to the public due to his association to organized crime, criminal history, interactions with police and patterns of behaviour.”

‘No home, no shelter and no immediate family’

Although the IRB tribunal member who heard Sandhu’s case found he had engaged in drug trafficking as part of a criminal organization, she said the evidence wasn’t strong enough to conclude the group itself was, in fact, the Ruffians.

But her finding was enough to result in an inadmissibility ruling.

The federal court documents contain a copy of a pre-removal risk assessment done prior to Sandhu’s deportation after he claimed he risked persecution back in India.

Sandhu did not make a refugee claim, but the details of the risk assessment provide insight into the grounds on which a number of extortion suspects currently targeted for removal by the CBSA have likely based their claims for asylum.

Sandhu claimed to be active in a Sikh separatist movement seeking to create an independent Sikh state called Khalistan in parts of northern India.

“The applicant cited that, if returned to India, he will experience persecution, violence and torture because of his Sikh identity, family history, political participation and medical condition,” the risk assessment reads.

“The applicant states that he fears returning to India because of widespread Indian police corruption, police cooperation with criminal groups and his active involvement in religious-political Khalistan movement.”

The risk assessment says “high-profile Sikh leaders of separatist movement organizations have been detained and, in various instances, killed” but said there was no evidence suggesting Sandhu was a “high ranking member of the Khalistan movement.”

In his affidavit, Sandhu said he had “no home, no shelter and no immediate family capable of supporting me in India.”

He also claimed deportation would cause harm to his wife, whom he married last summer, to his mother and to his dogs, which he said are “not merely pets” but a source of “emotional stability.”

“I will face homelessness, family separation and severe psychological harm,” Sandhu concluded in what amounted to a final, unsuccessful plea to authorities for one last, last chance.

“I make this affidavit in support of my motion to stay my removal and for no other or improper purpose.”