A specialized Peel police task force is investigating 29 extortion cases and has laid charges against five more people in connection with some of those incidents, the service says.
The Extortion Investigative Task Force was launched in December in response to a wave of South Asian business owners reporting threats of violence against them and their families if they didn’t pay money to prevent it.
At a news conference Wednesday, Supt. Shelley Thompson, who heads up the unit, said a total of 24 charges have been laid in relation to the 29 extortion attempts under investigation.
In nine of those instances, guns were fired at
