By Chad Pawson

Copyright cbc

Surrey, B.C.’s mayor and police chief have announced a fund worth $250,000 for tips that lead to successful convictions of extortion cases in the Metro Vancouver community.

“We cannot and will not let extortion take hold in our city,” said Mayor Brenda Locke, speaking at city hall Monday morning.

The announcement comes amid a rise in extortion cases largely targeting members of the South Asian community in Surrey and elsewhere in Canada, in which money is demanded from businesses under the threat of violence.

Locke said the Surrey Police Service (SPS) is currently investigating 44 cases of extortion in the city, and 27 related shootings.

Chief Const. Norm Lipinski said the SPS’s dedicated extortion team is making progress on the cases and has identified some persons of interest. He said he hopes the reward money will be the tool that brings in the information needed for successful convictions.

“This reward is intended to motivate individuals to provide specific evidence to police to further the investigation, leading to the arrest, prosecution and conviction of individuals,” he said.

Tips can be submitted by calling the Surrey extortion tip line at 236-485-5149. Callers must identify themselves. The reward will be broken up and awarded based on the value of the tips received, said Lipinski.

The reward line is to operate in tandem with the anonymous Crime Stoppers line for reporting instances of extortion at 1-800-222-8477.

In June, the B.C. government announced $100,000 for a 60-day public awareness campaign around the issue, encouraging extortion victims to report threats and violence to authorities.

In 2024, the RCMP established a national team to co-ordinate investigations and information sharing about extortion schemes targeting South Asian businesses in B.C., Alberta and Ontario.

Locke, whose council took the $250,000 reward money from their own budget, said she has been underwhelmed by the response from other levels of government, considering the crimes are often transnational.

“To be perfectly frank, we have not had what I had hoped for in terms of that support,” she said Monday. “People are living in fear in our city and this is not good enough, we need to see more action from the federal and provincial government.”

Don’t pay, says Surrey chief

Lipinski said victims of extortion should not pay, but report the crimes to police and preserve any evidence, such as emails.

“I really feel for the people of Surrey, I really feel for the victims that are subjected to this, and let’s keep in mind, they all have families,” he said.

“We certainly appreciate their strength in coming forward and we encourage the reporting of these incidents because you don’t know when that small nugget of information may lead to something big.”

He said police will work with victims to put in place safety plans.

Lipinski said his force is working hard on the cases, since they began investigating them in earnest in June. He said it took a year or more for other police services, such as those in Ontario to make arrests in cases.

In July, Mounties in B.C.’s Lower Mainland announced the arrest of two people related to an ongoing investigation into extortion attempts against South Asian businesses in Surrey from 2024.