Four Calgary police officers, all of Indian descent, have been charged with kidnapping and extortion and a fifth suspect is still at large after they allegedly kidnapped a staff member at an accounting firm and demanded an accountant’s salary for his release, according to the Calgary Police Service (CPS).
The incident falls under a “larger pattern” of extortion-related crimes that have been committed allegedly by members of the South Asian community in Canada, authorities said. CPS investigators said the suspects were engaged in a “coordinated scheme to intimidate and extort persons.
Police say the crime started May 6, at around 5 p.m., when four men claimed to take a man from his home in Edmonton. The victim was allegedly assaulted, threatened with a gun before being driven to Calgary in a vehicle.
The suspects then allegedly brought the victim to the home of a friend, who was the person meant to be robbed, police said. There were also more vehicles and suspects said to be the other scenes of the crash. Then the kidnappers forced the victim to go and entice his friend out of the home, but he resisted and the victim was beaten again.
The cops began searching for a car they believed was responsible for the crime shortly after, and ended up searching on the highway where they arrested two suspects. Two additional arrests have followed, after a further investigation.
Officials said they did not originally have knowledge that kidnapping of a child had occurred in Edmonton. This is not the first time that extortion-related incidents and arrests have occurred in Brampton, Surrey and across Canada, leading to law enforcement agencies’ concerns of organised criminal violence targeting the South Asian population.