From Bishnoi associate to FBI target: the rise of Jaggu Bhagwanpuria’s global crime syndicate

For years, Jaggu Bhagwanpuria was just another name in Punjab Police dossiers.

Today, he is at the centre of a 44-page US federal indictment that alleges he helped build a transnational criminal enterprise stretching from Punjab to California and Canada.

The indictment, filed in a federal court in California, also places Bhagwanpuria alongside his former ally-turned-rival Lawrence Bishnoi, revealing how two gangsters who once worked together allegedly built competing global syndicates.

Thirty-eight-year-old Jagdeep Singh alias Jaggu Bhagwanpuria hails from Bhagwanpur village in Gurdaspur district. His mother, Harjit Kaur, was once the village sarpanch.

A promising kabaddi player, he had his first major brush with the law in 2012, when Punjab Police booked him in an NDPS case involving the alleged recovery of 28 grams of heroin from Mattewal village in Amritsar district. Although he was eventually acquitted, investigators regard the case as his first significant entry into organised crime.

Since then he has had around 128 FIRs registered against him, including cases of murder, extortion, Arms Act violations, around a dozen NDPS cases, and conspiracy charges in some instances.

He has spent much of the past decade in Punjab jails, including Patiala, Goindwal Sahib and Bathinda. In March 2025, the Narcotics Control Bureau detained him under the PIT-NDPS Act and shifted him to the high-security Silchar Central Jail in Assam in an attempt to sever his links with associates in Punjab.

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According to US prosecutors, Bhagwanpuria established the Bhagwanpuria Organised Crime Group, which allegedly has more than 1,000 members and associates spread across India, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

His influence, investigators allege, was not only confined to the underworld.

In 2019, the North India Circle Style Kabaddi Federation wrote to the then DGP alleging that he dictated team selections for tournaments overseas.

From ally to arch-rival

Bhagwanpuria was once a close associate of Lawrence Bishnoi. The two were accused of plotting the assassination of popular Punjabi rapper Sidhu Moosewala in May 2023. US prosecutors describe him as a “former associate” who eventually broke away to build an independent organisation powerful enough to challenge the Bishnoi syndicate.

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The split was not merely personal. It was about control over extortion rackets, contract killings, narcotics routes and overseas networks.

The fracture began in February 2023 inside Goindwal Sahib Central Jail, where members of the two gangs clashed in one of Punjab’s bloodiest prison incidents.

Bhagwanpuria gang members Mandeep Singh alias Tufan and Manmohan Singh alias Mohna were killed. Within hours, Bishnoi associate Goldy Brar claimed responsibility in a Facebook post.

How the network went global

Like the Bishnoi syndicate, Bhagwanpuria’s organisation allegedly followed Punjab’s migration routes overseas.

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According to the indictment, trusted associates settled in Canada and the United States which became operational nodes for trafficking drugs, moving firearms, collecting extortion money and laundering proceeds.

California emerged as a major hub, with investigators alleging that cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin were transported across the United States before being routed into Canada.

Over 250,000 Punjabis live in California, the largest population in the U.S. Bhagwanpuria targeted real estate developers, liquor contractors, transporters, and local businessmen. The FBI Sacramento field office first raised an alarm in May 2024, when it urged the Punjabi diaspora to report extortions.

Recruiting through Instagram

The indictment alleges that the gang deliberately targeted disgruntled, economically vulnerable youngsters and even minors, offering them quick money, status, gang identity and, eventually, a pathway abroad.

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Those who proved loyal were allegedly rewarded with opportunities to relocate to Canada, the United States or the United Kingdom, where they became part of overseas operations.

Punjab Police have previously pointed to social media as an important recruitment tool. In 2023, then Ludhiana Range IG Kaustabh Sharma said three members of an international Bhagwanpuria-linked module had been recruited through Instagram.

Social media, investigators say, also became a weapon. Murder claims, threats to extortion victims and images glorifying gang members were routinely circulated online to spread fear and attract fresh recruits. Earlier this year, the Punjab Anti-Gangster Task Force said it had blocked 643 social media pages promoting gangster culture.

Running a global operation from jail

Perhaps the most striking allegation in the indictment is that Bhagwanpuria allegedly continued to direct operations from prison.

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According to US prosecutors, he remained in touch with overseas associates through contraband mobile phones and encrypted communication platforms, settling disputes, approving consignments and overseeing narcotics trafficking.

One episode cited in the indictment reads almost like a scene from a crime thriller.

Investigators allege that Bhagwanpuria personally sent an FBI confidential informant the phone number of a drug coordinator and the serial number of a currency note that would authenticate the delivery of a 20-kg cocaine consignment destined for transport from Los Angeles to Vancouver.

When US authorities intercepted the sham shipment in February this year, prosecutors say Bhagwanpuria immediately realised something had gone wrong. In a message allegedly sent from jail in Punjabi, he wrote that the “whole load got caught” before accusing the informant of blowing the operation because “a tracker was in your bricks…”

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The exchange, prosecutors say, illustrates not only his real-time knowledge of the shipment but also the extent to which he allegedly remained involved despite spending years behind bars.

Why the FBI stepped in

For years, Punjab’s gang wars were largely investigated by Indian police agencies, with Canadian authorities increasingly drawn in as violence spread overseas. The FBI’s involvement marks a significant escalation.

The indictment invokes the US Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, allowing investigators to treat the alleged offences as components of one criminal enterprise rather than isolated crimes.

Why the case matters

The indictment marks a watershed in the international scrutiny of Punjab-origin organised crime. For Punjab, it is a reminder that the state’s gang wars no longer end at the border.

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For the Punjabi diaspora, the human cost is already stark. Naindeep Singh of the Jakara Movement, says extortion victims in California often stay silent, fearing not just for themselves but for relatives back in Punjab . This fear became brutally real last year when Bhagwanpuria’s own mother, Harjit Kaur, and a cousin, were gunned down in Batala last year in a rival hit.