[7] After graduating from high school in 1986, Cheema went to college, studying criminal justice while working as a bouncer and then as a truck driver.

[4][14] In 1998, the United States charged Cheema of attempting to smuggle heroin and hashish from Pakistan to California and exchange it with Colombian gangs for cocaine.

[18][4] After investigating Cheema following Brar's murder, Vancouver Sun reporter Kim Bolan found that he had not been arrested on a charge for assault in Burnaby.

[4] MP Sukhminder "Sukh" Singh Dhaliwal faced controversy after writing to a U.S. District Court judge on official House of Commons stationery in support of Cheema.

[22] According to crime journalist Kim Bolan and her police sources, "Since returning from a California prison three months ago, longtime Vancouver gangster Ranjit Singh Cheema had been trying to muscle his way back into the lucrative B.C.

Some close to Cheema, as well as police sources, believe recent disputes with old associates could have led to the gangland execution of the former south slope crime boss in front of his parents' house on East 61st Avenue.