Authorities arrested a man in Greenwood earlier this week amidst a sweeping crackdown on three transnational criminal organizations. Gurpreet “Harman” Singh, 26, is one of two dozen people arrested in “Operation Hard Ball,” a years-long federal investigation into organized crime.
Singh and 16 others are accused of working for the Bhagwanpuria Organized Crime Group, a syndicate based in Punjab. The enterprise is accused of crimes including murder, weapons trafficking, money laundering and extortion.
The indictment alleges that Singh was involved in drug trafficking, which investigators say is one of the gang’s main streams of revenue. He faces two charges of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and one charge of distribution of controlled substances.
At the time of publication, online court records did not list a defense attorney for Singh.
Court documents say that in June 2025, Singh recruited truckers to drive about 100 kilograms [220 pounds] of cocaine and 1 kilogram [2 pounds] of heroin from Los Angeles to the east coast. One driver hauled the contraband from California to Greenfield, Indiana, where an unindicted co-conspirator picked up the load and delivered it to “a member or associate of a different drug trafficking organization” in New Jersey. The drugs were eventually intercepted by police.
Investigators wrote that about a year earlier, a Bhagwanpuria associate named Amritpal Singh Bal had ordered Singh to sell 5 kilograms of cocaine. Singh made about $45,000 in that transaction, unaware at the time that his buyer was a confidential police informant.
Authorities expected to apprehend both Bal and Singh in Indiana earlier this week. Bal was not located, however, and is now considered a fugitive, according to a representative from the FBI’s Indianapolis field office.
Bal stands accused of kidnapping in addition to drug trafficking. In July 2024, Bal and several of his associates lured a man suspected of stealing their drugs to a home in California. At least two of Bal’s associates assaulted the man before they took him to a second location, where investigators say that Bal demanded $50,000 for his release.
Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, the gang’s alleged leader, ordered Bal to let the man go “in an effort to resolve an internal dispute” within the organization, according to the indictment.
Even though Jaggu Bhagwanpuria is currently incarcerated in India, he’s accused of directing his self-named gang’s international operations from a cell phone behind bars. He was indicted on a charge of racketeering.
Operation Hard Ball investigated three gangs
The Bhagwanpuria indictment was one of three gangs investigated as a result of Operation Hard Ball.
Federal authorities also filed racketeering, extortion and drug charges against key figures in Bhagwanpuria’s purported rival gang, operated by Lawrence Bishnoi. Bishnoi, a notorious kingpin who’s been jailed in India for more than a decade, is accused of orchestrating the 2023 assassination of political dissident Hardeep Singh Nijjar, whose 2023 killing strained India-Canada relations.
A third indictment was filed against what the feds called the “Dhanda Drug Trafficking Organization,” a methamphetamine and cocaine distribution network operated by three Canadians at the U.S.-Canada border. Eleven people were named in that indictment.
The Dhanda enterprise works with members of the Bishnoi and Bhagwanpuria groups to traffic drugs, a representative for the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Central California said.
“Transnational criminal gangs who spread fear, drugs, and violence will face the full force of justice and the weight of the federal government,” U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a justice department news release.
Ryan Murphy is the communities reporter for IndyStar. She can be reached at rhmurphy@indystar.com.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Man arrested in Greenwood after feds file transnational gang indictment
Reporting by Ryan Murphy, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Ryan Murphy, Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network
