There have been 16 extortion cases reported in Surrey so far this year

There have been 16 reported extortion cases reported in Surrey since the beginning of the year.

Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton of the Surrey Police Service told Global News that a shooting in Newton early on Thursday morning, in which thankfully no one was hurt, was also connected to a case of extortion.

“As in many cases, we’ve been able to link at this early stage of the investigation to some threats or extortion messages linked to the business,” Houghton said.

“And this unfortunately has become all too common, not just here in Surrey, but around the Lower Mainland and in major cities across Canada.”

Houghton said since the start of 2026, 12 victims of extortion have come forward, 16 instances have been recorded, along with three extortion-related shots-fired calls.

He did say there are some common traits among the cases with a business owner or victim getting a text message or a phone call telling them they have to pay a certain amount of money or harm will come to them or their family or even their business.

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“It’s the fear that’s driving this,” Houghton said.

“Many people we know are still paying. You know, we’re quite confident that if people stop paying, the criminals will move on. And we’ve seen that in other types of crimes.

“Unfortunately, Surrey’s not alone in this fight. Regions like Peel and Brampton and other cities across Canada, Edmonton, for example, have had hundreds and hundreds of these over the past few years, and now it’s come to Surrey.”

2:36 Concerns over rising extortion cases

The province has established a task force to deal with these extortion cases and will be providing an update on its progress next week.

“We continue to devote more and more resources to this here in Surrey from SPS and working with our partners and other agencies,” Houghton said.

“But a lot of it is prevention and education with victims. What we really need to have continue happen is for victims to come forward. And yes, that will result in higher statistics. But we often say that it’s that one piece of information that may be a break in our case, and it is true. We need those licence plates. We need the names of people who may be involved so that our investigators can follow up.”

B.C. Premier David Eby said on Thursday that he has not been happy with the fact that there has been no update from the task force and he has asked them to provide one.

“There have been some important developments, people deported, an arrest here in India, cooperation between the Indian government and the Canadian government on this at the law enforcement level,” he added.

“That needs to continue, but, bluntly, we need better results, we need to see more arrests and whatever we can do to support the police to get the job done, we will do so.”