Opinion | Guns To Rallies, How 'Drug Money' Is Fuelling Khalistani Extremism In Canada

Canada is home to one of the world's largest Sikh diasporas - nearly 8 lakh strong. The overwhelming majority are law-abiding citizens who have enriched the country through trucking, farming, construction and small business. Yet, a small, violent fringe within the Punjabi-Canadian community has, over the past two decades, become deeply entangled with transnational organised crime. The profits from cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl trafficking are not only buying guns and luxury cars; mounting evidence suggests they are also bankrolling pro-Khalistan rallies, referendums and legal defence funds for extremists.

This toxic nexus is no secret to Canadian police. Since 2007, more than 200 gang-related homicides in British Columbia alone have been linked to rival Punjabi-Canadian gangs fighting for control of the lucrative cross-border drug trade. The victims and perpetrators are overwhelmingly young men of South Asian origin. The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of British Columbia (CFSEU-BC) has repeatedly described the conflict as one of the province's most serious public-safety threats.

A String Of Seizures In Recent Years

• February 2025: The Peel regional police seized 479 kg of cocaine - the largest haul in the region's history - hidden in truck trailers entering from the United States. Six of the nine individuals charged were Indo-Canadian men from Brampton and Mississauga
• 2024: A super-lab capable of producing $500 million worth of synthetic drugs was dismantled in Falkland, BC
• 2022: A joint Canada-US operation seized drugs worth $25 million; three of the five men charged were Punjabi-Canadians using trucking firms as cover

These are not isolated incidents. Law-enforcement sources in both countries say a significant portion of the cocaine and fentanyl entering Western Canada now moves through networks dominated by a subset of Punjabi-Canadian organised crime groups.

The more disturbing allegation - raised by Indian diplomats and echoed in some Canadian police circles - is that part of this criminal revenue is diverted to finance Khalistan separatist activities in the diaspora. While no Canadian agency has publicly confirmed a direct, systematic pipeline, several documented cases raise serious questions:

High-profile "Khalistan referendums" organised by Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) in 2021-2024 in Brampton, Surrey and Calgary cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each (buses, stages, advertising, printed ballots, school-ground rentals). Indian investigators claim portions were funded by individuals later charged in major drug cases.

In 2023, financial intelligence reportedly traced approximately $80,000 from a raided drug house in Ontario to a registered Canadian charity that supports pro-Khalistan causes.

Gurdwaras that host fiery anti-India speeches have, in some instances, received large donations from trucking companies subsequently investigated for narcotics smuggling.

The Nijjar Saga

Perhaps the clearest illustration came with the June 2023 assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Khalistan Tiger Force leader, outside a Surrey temple. Canadian police charged four Indian nationals with the murder in May 2024. Court documents and reporting by CBC and The Globe and Mail reveal that at least two of the accused had prior ties to criminal networks involved in drugs and firearms. Indian officials insist the killing was a gangland hit linked to turf wars over drug routes; the Trudeau government alleges Indian state involvement. Whatever the ultimate truth, the fact that a designated terrorist figure's orbit overlapped with organised crime underscores how blurred the lines have become.

This is not a new phenomenon. In the 1980s and 1990s, Babbar Khalsa and other militant groups used extortion, smuggling and donations from the diaspora to fund their campaign - a campaign that culminated in the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182, still Canada's worst terror attack. Thirty years later, the methods have modernised, but the pattern - crime funding extremist politics - bears uncomfortable echoes.

Most Canadian Sikhs reject both violence and separatism. Prominent community leaders, including former BC premier Ujjal Dosanjh and the World Sikh Organization of Canada, have repeatedly condemned the exploitation of gurdwaras for political extremism and called for stronger action against gang recruitment of Sikh youth. But the problem persists, in part because political parties in vote-rich ridings such as Brampton and Surrey have been reluctant to confront it head-on.

Canada now faces a clear choice. It can continue treating Khalistani extremism and Punjabi-Canadian gang violence as separate issues, or it can follow the money and acknowledge they are increasingly two sides of the same coin. Stronger border enforcement, financial-intelligence sharing with trusted partners, and zero tolerance for the laundering of drug proceeds through political or charitable fronts would be practical first steps.

For the vast majority of Canadian Sikhs who simply want to work, raise their families and pray in peace, dismantling this criminal-extremist nexus is not just a law-enforcement priority - it is the only way to remove the stain that a tiny minority has placed on an entire community. 

(Vikram Zutshi is a cultural critic, author and filmmaker who divides his time between the US, Latin America and Asia.)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author