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The Abbotsford Police Department has launched a new task force following a string of violent extortion-related incidents against South Asian business owners and families.
The internal task force, dubbed Operation Community Shield, follows four incidents in just two weeks, including shootings and vehicle arsons.
“I would call the extortion–related events that are happening, not only in Abbotsford, but across the Lower Mainland, extremely serious,” APD Sgt. Paul Walker said.
“We have people that are living in their homes, we have business owners that are running businesses that are being victimized with violent crime, and that is not OK.”
2:07 Early morning shots fired at Abbotsford home
Since November 2023, the APD has recorded 38 reports of extortion-related incidents, though the vast majority involved non-violent methods, such as threatening letters, phone calls or text messages.
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The newly formed task force pulls together a variety of resources, including major crimes, surveillance teams and crime analysts.
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“They’re focused on Abbottsford-related incidents,” Walker said. “We’ve also seconded two of our officers to the provincial extortion task force.”
The provincial task force was announced earlier this month.
The City of Surrey also announced it would be backing a $250,000 fund to reward tipsters who came forward with credible information resulting in charges and arrests.
“There’s provincial issues, there’s cross-boundary issues that the provincial task force is going to do, but there’s localized issues that we really want to dig into and focus on and expedite unravelling those and holding those people accountable,” Walker said.
3:43 B.C. steps up its fight against extortion threats targeting the province’s South Asian community
He added that this is the largest internal redeployment for the APD since the atmospheric river event in 2021.
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The South Asian Business Association welcomes the move but says many in the community have grown frustrated over the lack of visible progress.
“It appears there were many videos where you could see those men who attacked the business, didn’t even have masks, and you could see them in the videos,” said the association’s first vice-president, Puneet Sandhar.
“So seeing that the police force and the government and all three levels of government as well are taking some active steps towards it, of course, it’s giving me some comfort, but I feel like it should have been done a long time ago.”
Operation Community Shield has no end date; APD says it will continue until the threat is under control.
For now, police are urging anyone with information to come forward.
[SRC] https://globalnews.ca/news/11449837/abbotsford-police-extortion-task-force/