SURREY Police Service (SPS) on Monday released a photo of Lovebir Singh, a 22-year-old foreign national male, who has been removed from Canada in the hopes of appealing to the public for information on his associates and activities while he was in Canada. This individual is suspected of being involved in the ongoing extortion crisis.

Lovebir Singh had been in Canada since the fall of 2023. He was identified by SPS in early 2026 and was suspected as being involved in extortion-related criminal activity. SPS notified and shared information on the individual with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). As a result of their immigration investigation, he was subsequently removed from Canada.

SPS said it was releasing the photo of Lovebir Singh after determining that disclosure is necessary to assist with ongoing police investigations. SPS hopes that the public release of this image of Lovebir Singh prompts additional witnesses, victims, or associates to come forward with relevant information regarding the activities of Lovebir Singh. Any information provided by the public or associates can assist police in gathering information on the people and potential criminal networks involved in violent extortions.

SPS is asking anyone who has information on Lovebir Singh to contact SPS’s non-emergency number at 604-599-0502, the Surrey Extortion Tip Line at 236-485-5149, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or www.solvecrime.ca if you wish to remain anonymous.

In September 2025, the Surrey Extortion Reward Fund of $250,000 was established to offer individuals with key information the ability to collect a reward if charges and convictions of those responsible for these crimes are secured.

In 2026, as of Monday, February 23 there have been:

• 56 reported extortions
• 11 related shots fired
• 2 arsons
• 32 victims (18 repeat)

SPS notes that photos will be considered for release on a case-by-case basis and based on the legal necessity to seek assistance from the public with police investigations. The disclosure of these photos in this case is a consistent use disclosure under sections 33(2)(d) and 34 of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act whereby police can disclose photos of persons if the disclosure is necessary to further a police investigation into a current crime, or series of crimes, and to seek the public’s assistance for witnesses and victims who may have information.

MEANWHILE, Jason Proctor of CBC is reporting that when Edmonton Police arrested Arshdeep Singh for shoplifting at a mall last November, their investigation led to them discovering a cache of images and messages on his phone linking him to an arson in Ontario, a shooting in Edmonton, extortion cases in Surrey and auto theft and insurance fraud in the Lower Mainland, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

That included a photograph of Arshdeep Singh alongside the alleged “prime conspirator” behind a series of extortion-linked shootings at Surrey’s Kap’s Cafe.

Arshdeep Singh came to Canada as a student in August 2022 and was living on a post-graduate work permit due to expire in April 2026.

He was deported after being found inadmissible to Canada last December due to organized criminality. CBC reports that at his hearing, Arshdeep Singh denied wrongdoing, but didn’t fight deportation. The evidence against him has not resulted in criminal charges beyond shoplifting.

But the immigration rulings — which require a lesser standard of proof than a criminal conviction — show the enormity of the extortion challenge for Canadian authorities.

CBC reported that at a pre-hearing conference in mid-December, Singh told the Immigration and Refugee Board member overseeing his case he would accept a deportation order — but he was reluctant to see counsel for the Immigration Minister recount the list of allegations against him. He said: “I am really in depression deep, and my family is in depression back home, sir. My mother is in hospital due to all of these things.”

He claimed: “I am not involved in any of the extortion, arson, any fraud anywhere.”

CBC noted: “But police investigations and the contents of Singh’s phone told another story.

“According to the IRB transcripts, Singh was at the scene of an arson on a commercial business in Brant County, Ont., on Aug. 5, 2025, where he directed two assailants to place Molotov cocktails on the ground before instructing another to film the attack.”

Arshdeep Singh was later in Edmonton as part of a group of people recorded at a scene where five shots from a handgun were fired into the air. “The IRB documents name seven other suspects seen alongside Singh at that incident in videos found on his phone; they have allegedly been investigated through Project Gaslight, an Edmonton Police investigation into extortion and arson of South Asian businesses in Alberta,” reports CBC.

Immigration counsel Kelsie Peter claimed shell casings from the shooting in Edmonton in August would later prove to be a match for those recovered at an extortion-related shooting that happened in Surrey in May — three months earlier.

At the end of October, Singh was in British Columbia, “subject to a Surrey traffic stop which was also linked to a residential shooting.”

“Peter also said Singh spoke briefly to police about his “personal relationship with Mr. Bandhu Maan Singh Sekhon” after police found video of the two men together along with another individual who has also been declared inadmissible to Canada for criminal activity,” reports CBC.

As was reported in the media at the time, Sekhon fled Canada as police were closing in on him, but he was arrested by Delhi Police. He’s accused of masterminding the three shootings at Kap’s Cafe.

CBC said: “Singh’s admissibility hearing also dealt with his alleged involvement in auto theft and vehicle insurance fraud in B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan.”

According to the CBSA, Singh is one of 10 suspects deported following extortion-related investigations into nearly 300 foreign nationals that have resulted in a total of 32 removal orders, CBC reported.

Singh represented himself at his admissibility hearing, but had a lawyer at the last proceeding for which CBC News obtained records.

CBC’s Proctor reported: “His lawyer — Marvin Klassen — told the Immigration and Refugee Board tribunal member overseeing that hearing that his client “wanted to make it clear that he has not been charged with anything in relation to using firearms or extortion.””

Klassen said: “Unless some new charges are coming forward that he’s not yet aware of, those items have not been proved in court.”

“But the allegations were enough to have Singh found inadmissible to Canada under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, ordered removed from the country and then held in detention pending deportation as a danger to the public,” Proctor said.

According to the IRB documents, Singh was charged in Edmonton and Calgary with shoplifting and assault, but Peter said the officials were working with the Crown to stay charges against him in order to expedite removal from Canada, Proctor added.