Arti Bali
New Delhi, Jul 8 (UNI) In a major international crackdown that is likely to revive focus on India's long-standing concerns over the nexus between organised crime and extremist networks operating overseas, law enforcement agencies in the United States, Canada and Europe have arrested 24 people linked to three India-based transnational criminal syndicates accused of carrying out murders, extortion, large-scale drug trafficking and the 2023 assassination of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada.
The coordinated operation, codenamed Operation "Hard Ball," is the culmination of a years-long multinational investigation into criminal organisations allegedly directed from India by jailed gang leaders and operating across North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.