Eight Indian-origin people were arrested in California’s San Joaquin County on Friday in a gang-related kidnapping and torture case, said authorities. Several security teams came together to execute five coordinated search warrants across San Joaquin County as part of a gang-related kidnapping and torture investigation, leading to the arrest of eight men.Those arrested have been identified as Dilpreet Singh, Arshpreet Singh, Amritpal Singh, Vishal, Pavittar Singh, Gurtaj Singh, Manpreet Randhawa, Sarabjit Singh, said San Joaquin County Sheriff’s office in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
The San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office AGNET unit worked alongside the Stockton Police Department SWAT team, Manteca Police Department SWAT team, Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team, and the FBI SWAT team to execute the warrants.The sheriff’s office also shared a video of the arrests and identified Pavittar Singh as the primary suspect. However, it did not give any further details about the case.Apart from the arrests, the authorities also seized $15,000 in cash and a large cache of arms and ammunition including – five handguns (including a fully-automatic Glock), one assault rifle, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and high-capacity magazines.
What are the charges
The eight suspects have been booked into the San Joaquin County Jail on various felony charges, including kidnapping, torture, false imprisonment, conspiracy to commit a crime, preventing/dissuading a witness, assault with a semiautomatic firearm, threats to terrorise, and felony gang enhancement.They are also facing other weapons-related charges such as possession of a machine gun, illegal possession of an assault weapon, manufacture/sale of high-capacity magazines, manufacturing a short-barreled rifle and carrying a loaded, unregistered handgun.
The crackdown was a part of the Kash Patel-headed Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Summer Heat initiative which is a “nationwide effort targeting violent offenders and gang members who terrorize” communities, said the sheriff’s office.“Summer Heat reflects Director Patel’s commitment to the American people to crush crime and restore safety in neighborhoods across the country,” the post said.