Updated at 6:07 p.m.
An Indian national on the FBI’s most wanted list was captured in Alburgh on Thursday near the Canadian border after someone spotted the fugitive on a security camera trying to enter their barn.
Nitish Kaushal, 26, also known by his alias “Lala,” is accused of being a member of a transnational criminal syndicate known as the Jaggu Bhagwanpuria Organized Crime Group or “Bhagwanpuria OCG.” According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the group originated in Punjab, India, but has thousands of members across the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
An arrest warrant filed with the U.S. District Court of Central California says Kaushal was apprehended on RICO charges and could face a life sentence for his alleged involvement in extortion, kidnappings, murders, and international drug and weapons trafficking on behalf of Bhagwanpuria OCG.
Kaushal appeared in a federal courtroom in Burlington on Friday, shackled and wearing an orange jumpsuit. Speaking through a Punjabi interpreter and represented by a federal public defender, Kaushal confirmed to Judge Kevin Doyle that he was the subject of the arrest warrant.
Kaushal slouched in his chair as he listened to the charges read against him. The judge stated that the government believes Kaushal would pose a risk to public safety if he is released and ordered Kaushal held in jail until a detention hearing on Tuesday.
Kaushal was arrested on Thursday morning by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers within a mile of the Canadian border, according to a motion for detention filed with the U.S. District Court of Vermont.
“In the overnight hours of July 16, 2026, the Defendant is believed to have abandoned a vehicle just feet from the Canadian border. An individual was spotted in Canada traveling by foot by Canadian law enforcement before the Defendant was again identified in Vermont later that morning,” court documents say.
Nitish Kaushal in 2025 Credit: U.S. Department of Justice
Kaushal was spotted by a concerned citizen in Vermont after they spotted him on their security camera looking into their car and entering their barn, the records say. When Border Patrol officers found Kaushal, he gave them a fake driver’s license from New Jersey with a different name. His fingerprints, and a distinctive lion tattoo, later exposed his true identity.
Kaushal’s capture comes days after “Operation Hard Ball,” a coordinated law enforcement effort between agencies in the U.S., Canada and Europe that arrested 24 individuals allegedly connected with India-based transnational syndicates, including Bhagwanpuria OCG. The operation charged 37 people, including 17 alleged members of Bhagwanpuria OCG.
Notably, the law enforcement operation also targeted notorious gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and the Bishnoi gang. The DOJ said that Bishnoi oversees his global criminal enterprise from prison in India, where he has been held since 2015. In addition to drug trafficking, human smuggling, kidnapping and murder, the DOJ said Bishnoi is known to have personally directed the assassinations of prominent political and religious leaders.
According to the DOJ, Bishnoi and his lieutenant, Goldy Brar, are charged with the 2023 assasination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a well-known political dissident living in Surrey, British Columbia. Bishnoi and Brar are also thought to have masterminded the 2022 assasination of Sidhu Moose Wala, a successful Indian singer and rapper based in Canada. The Canadian government listed the Bishnoi gang as a terrorist entity in 2025.
According to Kaushal’s arrest warrant, Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, the leader of Bhagwanpuria OCG currently imprisoned in India, was once a close associate of Bishnoi but later developed his own transnational criminal enterprise and a violent rivalry with Bishnoi.
Authorities say this image shows Nitish Kaushal and associates beating someone up Credit: U.S. Department of Justice
“The Bhagwanpuria OCG accepted murder-for-hire contracts as a source of revenue, and would also target perceived rivals with violence, including murders and kidnappings,” Kaushal’s arrest warrant read.
According to the arrest warrant, Kaushal was directly involved in the assault and extortion of a man accused of stealing a load of cocaine from the gang in California. Kaushal and his associates demanded $50,000 from the man in retribution for the alleged theft. The arrest warrant also describes how Kaushal’s fellow gang-members were involved in smuggling automatic weapons and cocaine from California to locations across the U.S.
