The South Asian community will find some comfort in recent Calgary police arrests in ongoing extortion and intimidation violence, says the city councillor representing the northeast.

On April 1, Calgary police announced the arrest of a 45-year-old man in connection with an ongoing extortion investigation that has targeted members of the South Asian community, including alleged threats at a daycare outside of Calgary.

Rana Cheema, 45, was charged with extortion and uttering threats, according to the Calgary Police Service (CPS).

According to CPS Supt. Jeff Bell, between March 4 and 22, investigators looked into a series of escalating incidents connected to the extortion investigation, including a shooting at a residence, repeated acts of property damage and suspicious activity at multiple daycare centres outside Calgary.

According to CPS, investigators with the Organized Crime Unit, along with RCMP, believe that the incidents are related to ongoing extortion attempts involving intimidation, property damage and shootings connected to demands for large sums of money and transferred control of the businesses.

“This extortion series is highly complex in both scope, depth and magnitude,” said Supt. Bell.

“The charges announced today are an important step forward, but I want to stress this point. This is just the start of our enforcement work. Our investigators are continuing to work diligently to fully understand the scope, identify additional suspects and disrupt these groups.

Bell said that they’re using dedicated units across multiple units, supported by the RCMP, the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team (ALERT) and other federal agencies.

“Our message to the offenders is very simple: We will continue down this path. We are taking a hard, unequivocal stance. There is no tolerance for this in any of our communities,” he said.

Since January 2025, there have been 41 extortion attempts in Calgary, with 18 involving shootings at homes, businesses or at vehicles, Bell said.

‘People were just frustrated.’

Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal, who has held several town halls on the issue and has been working closely with CPS and with Alberta Minister of Public Safety Mike Ellis, said that the South Asian community in Calgary has been feeling a lot of anxiety and fear over the issue, with many wondering if they could continue living in the city.

Dhaliwal said seeing the progress police have made could encourage others with information, or those who have been victimized, to come forward.

“People want to see the results, and once they see results, it kind of starts to alleviate some of their concerns, and, more importantly, fear,” he said.

“Once you’re out of that zone, you’re willing to talk more about it, because while you’re living in fear, you don’t even know who to trust.”

Supt. Bell said they’ve increased visible patrols, worked with victims, and continued to do outreach in the South Asian community.  He said that fear of retribution and judgment from the community are factors in people not wanting to contact the police if they’ve been victimized.

“There’s a lot of factors that go into this, but we encourage people to come forward with that information,” he said.

“Obviously, we recognize and have the ability to take that information, synthesize it, and see who’s actually responsible versus somebody who might have made an honest mistake.”

Bell said that while this is the first arrest, and it’s very significant, they have planned enforcement in the future. It took some time to “understand the landscape,” and they’re looking at several different angles to try to address the root cause of the issue.

The violent extortion and intimidation in the South Asian community are a problem in several Canadian cities, including the Lower Mainland in British Columbia, and in communities outside Toronto.

Bell said they’re open to potential connections to these incidents in other cities, and are working with police agencies across Canada.

Dhaliwal said he hopes that this recent arrest is just the start.

“I think this is going to send a message to the community that this was taken seriously, and this is just, hopefully, the first of many to come. Because, like I said, people were just frustrated,” he said.