Bishnoi Directed Murders on 4 Continents From His Prison Cell, US Indictment Says

Lawrence Bishnoi, lodged in Sabarmati Central Jail since 2023 for drug-related offenses, has been accused by the US of leading a global crime syndicate orchestrating criminal activities across continents via smuggled phones.

Gangster Lawrence Bishnoi ran a global crime network from inside an Indian jail, allegedly using smuggled mobile phones to order killings and extortions across four continents, as pert the US federal indictment document. The charges were filed on July 1, 2026 in a US federal court in California. Bishnoi and eight others – Satinderjeet Singh, a.k.a Goldy Brar, Rohit Godara and Sukhraj Singh Kang, Jaggu Bhagwan Puriya, Gurlal Singh, Gurdev Singh, Ravinder Singh Dhanda, Gurtej Singh Smagh, Gurinder Deo and Sukhraj Singh Kang- are accused of racketeering, extortion and drug crimes.

The man in question – Lawrence Bishnoi – is not a free man. He has been serving a sentence in Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, since August 2023, after the state’s anti-terror squad arrested him in connection with a drug-smuggling case. He has been in continuous custody since 2015, and faces several cases across several Indian states. Yet according to US prosecutors, none of that stopped him.

The indictment says that “using contraband cellphones and other voice over internet protocol devices smuggled into his jail cell,” Bishnoi “personally directed political assassinations, murders, shootings, extortions, kidnappings, drug trafficking, human smuggling, and other crimes.”

“Defendant BISHNOI was the global leader of the Bishnoi OCG. In public, defendant BISHNOI projected an image of himself as a “patriot,” “nationalist,” and deeply religious individual. Defendant BISHNOI projected this public image through, among other outlets, social media posts and interviews with news organizations. Defendant BISHNOI used this public image to recruit members and associates to the Bishnoi OCG in India, the United States, and elsewhere,” the indictment order read.

The reach it describes is wide. Prosecutors say the group, allegedly based out of India, had members in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe and Australia, spanning Asia, North America, Europe and Australia. Bishnoi, the document alleges, was the “global leader,” with lieutenants running each region. The document names his childhood friend Satinderjeet Singh, better known as “Goldy Brar,” as the head of North American operations, and another associate, Rohit Godara, as the man overseeing Europe. Together, it says, they directed “targeted killings, shootings, kidnappings, maimings, assaults, extortions, and drug trafficking.”

Prosecutors say Bishnoi wore a very different face in public. In interviews and social media posts, the indictment says, he projected himself as a “patriot,” “nationalist,” and deeply religious man and allegedly tried to use that image to pull in recruits.

Many of those recruits, the document says, came from parts of Punjab. The gang “often recruited minors,” it adds, a deliberate choice made “to minimize the sentencing exposure that would otherwise attach to violent criminal activity.” Loyal members were then sent abroad on student and worker visas “often containing fraudulent information.”

The filing lists violence in several countries. Without naming him, it refers to a “prominent religious and political leader from the Punjab state of India who was living in British Columbia,” shot dead outside a Sikh gurdwara in Surrey, Canada in June 2023. It says Bishnoi supplied the killers with “a photograph of, and multiple addresses for” the target.

Bishnoi, who remains in Indian custody, has not publicly responded to the charges. The indictment was signed by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. The charges are allegations, and none has been tested in court.

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