Manteca man pleads guilty to murder-for-hire plot foiled by FBI informant in Starbucks lot
A Manteca man has pleaded guilty to his role in a murder-for-hire plot uncovered by an FBI informant, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Jagninder Singh Boparai, 48, entered his plea Jan. 23 in federal court. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 at his May 8 sentencing.
Boparai was one of three men arrested in March 2023 in a Starbucks parking lot just off Airport Way. They were accused of targeting a fourth man who had sued them for fraud in a Stockton property purchase. The target was not harmed.
The other defendants are Ramesh Kumar Birla Jr., 45, of Dublin and Shaminderjit Singh Sandhu, 51, of Tracy. They remain in custody and have an April 10 status conference in the Sacramento-based court.
All three were charged with conspiring to use interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire. That can include communication and transportation systems. The case did not rise to attempted murder.
Neither the target nor the informant were identified. Other details were laid out in news releases and a criminal complaint:
The target had accused the three men of fraud in the purchase of a Stockton site that was to be developed as a truck parking lot.
The FBI learned of the plot and arranged to have the informant pose as a hit man and secretly record conversations with the suspects. They met multiple times outside the Starbucks and discussed having the target killed for $30,000, including a $10,000 down payment.
The informant had a criminal record dating to 1998, mainly for theft, but was trusted by the FBI.
The case has another element: Boparai wanted the informant to first assault another person to demonstrate a willingness to carry out the murder.
“Let’s start with a good beat-up, very good,” Boparai said in one recording. “... Then I have another job.” The informant was to receive $1,000 down and a total of $6,000 for the assault. It was never carried out.
The FBI had help on the case from several local, state and federal law-enforcement agencies. Details on what they did were not disclosed.
The local partners included the San Joaquin County sheriff’s and probation departments; the Stanislaus County sheriff and district attorney; and police in Modesto, Ceres, Turlock, Lathrop, Stockton, Tracy and Dublin.
