Shakedowns put North End shops on edge

A growing number of business owners in Winnipeg’s North End are pleading for help from law enforcement, claiming they’ve been targeted in a dangerous extortion and arson campaign.

They allege that four men have been demanding large sums of money to allow them to continue operating. When the owners refuse to comply, businesses are being set on fire.

Fearing for both their safety and their livelihoods, many owners of automotive service locations, restaurants and convenience stores spoke to the Free Press only under the condition of anonymity. Several say their businesses have already been targeted, and some have lost everything after refusing to pay.

“We are begging for help, it’s affecting all types of businesses,” said Ahmed Muhammad, owner of The Quickie Mart on Selkirk Avenue. “People are going to get hurt. People are going to die. People have been inside when they’ve fire-bombed these places.”

Muhammad said he’s speaking out because he’s had enough. Multiple North End businesses have already been hit, and many more fear they’re next. He and others are urgently calling on police to act, claiming they’ve compiled and submitted a substantial amount of evidence pointing to the alleged perpetrators.

“We have these guys on video,” he said. “It’s not that we think it’s them — we have all of the videos and pictures showing it’s them. The police are investigating. The police can’t find them.”

The Free Press has obtained security camera footage and stills from several businesses, capturing interactions between suspects and staff. Other images show one of the men — identifiable by matching footwear — appearing at different locations, including one video that appears to show him setting a fire behind a business along Selkirk Avenue.

“The asks have ranged from anywhere between $1,000 and $3,000, monthly, or ‘we will burn you down,’” Muhammad said, adding that he received a text from one of the men demanding $500,000. “These businesses don’t even make $3,000 a month. People aren’t making millions here.”

In one video, a group of men — including the individual business owners believe is behind the scheme — are seen at Magnus Foods Grocery and Convenience Store on Main Street last Wednesday, threatening an employee, telling him that if the owner doesn’t call them back within a day, they’ll return.

“We’re probably going to burn this f—king place down,” one man wearing a navy-blue hat and a light-grey hooded sweatshirt, told the employee after passing him a piece of paper.

In a separate incident, the same four men appeared at Ur’s Convenience Store. The employee on duty locked them inside and called police, but they managed to escape before officers arrived hours later.

“It’s affecting my employees,” said one owner, who has been repeatedly threatened. He said he hasn’t gone to police yet, but friends of his have urged him to take the threats seriously after what other businesses have experienced in the area.

Another business owner told the Free Press that people began setting fires at their location as far back as 2021, and the latest was earlier this year.

Just last week, the same four men who appear in the videos obtained by the Free Press walked into that establishment and demanded money, slipping an employee a phone number for the owner — who lives out of province — to call.

“(The owner) was all of a sudden getting text messages demanding $500,000,” the employee said, adding that in one instance, two unidentified men came into the store one day last year, poured gasoline on the store’s merchandise and tried to set it on fire. “We were able to get them out of the store and call the police, the fire department and all of that.”

The employee said he’s given everything he’s received to police, but isn’t sure what’s being done to protect people and the places they work in the North End.

The Winnipeg Police Service has confirmed there is an ongoing investigation. A spokesperson declined to comment further.

The silence is wearing thin as concern grows.

Business owners say they’ve run out of time and patience. Several report direct encounters with the men they accuse, and some are now out of work, having become victims, they say, of arson meant to punish their defiance.

The operator of beauty salon threatened earlier this week was too scared to speak, even under a condition of anonymity, still rattled by the ordeal.

“They were told that if they went to the police, they would be killed,” another individual familiar with the business said.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca