[8] A petty criminal codenamed "Billy Joe", with a record for drug trafficking, use of a firearm, kidnapping and assault, approached the Sûreté du Québec and told them that he'd gotten Maninder Anand to agree to buy a stolen Cadillac, and claimed that he'd heard colleagues talk about blowing up an Air India flight.
With a long record of informing on his colleagues for the past 12 years, "Billy Joe" offered to get evidence against these Sikhs in exchange for the police dropping charges against one of his friends who was facing life imprisonment.
[9] The case was largely built around an FBI mole, Frank Miele, who spoke to Khela and Dhillon in a bugged Montreal hotel room on May 19 and May 22, offering his services to them under the name of "George" at the urging of "Billy Joe", who had told them he was a member of the Mafia.
[9][10][11][12] Dhillon was worried because Khela had given the American $6,500 for an ostensibly stolen Cadillac, and agreed to attend the meeting to try to make sure that his friend either had his money returned or got legitimate ownership papers on the car.
Dhillon later explained that Miele looked like a "pretty dangerous type of guy", and both men maintained that they understood the meeting was to discuss brokering a deal for stolen vehicles from the United States.
[8] As of 2002, Khelsa claims he is still harassed by CSIS, that the Canadian spy agency disrupted his business and pushed him to give them inside information on Babbar Khalsa's activities in Canada.