Canadian officials announced on Wednesday that they have arrested nine individuals and issued search warrants for three others in connection with the $14.77 million (20 million Canadian dollars) gold heist that occurred at the Toronto Pearson International Airport last year.
On the one-year anniversary of the heist, authorities announced that six pure gold bracelets worth over $65,000 have been recovered by the police. However, this is just a fraction of the total amount of gold that was stolen from a holding cargo facility last April.
According to Peel Regional Police Detective Sgt. Mike Mavity, a total of 6,600 bars of pure gold, weighing over 400 kilograms, and approximately $1.8 million in foreign currency were stolen in the heist. It is believed that the thieves melted down the stolen gold, sold it, and used the proceeds to acquire illegal firearms as part of a trafficking operation. Sgt. Mavity shared this information during a press conference on Wednesday.
According to Mavity, the police have confiscated cash worth $312,000, which they suspect to be a portion of the profits obtained from the sale of the gold. Additionally, the authorities have also seized smelting pots, casts, and molds that they believe were utilized to alter the composition of the gold bars.
During their investigation, authorities uncovered two separate lists documenting amounts of $7.21 million and $10.23 million at distinct locations.
According to Mavity, these lists commonly used in drug trafficking investigations actually reveal the distribution of money from the sale of gold by the suspects.
Throughout the course of the yearlong investigation, authorities have conducted a total of 37 search warrants and have interviewed more than 50 individuals. The diligent efforts of law enforcement have resulted in the filing of 19 charges against the individuals involved in this case.
Canadian law enforcement agencies collaborated with the Philadelphia Field Division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to apprehend an individual in the U.S. who was found to be in possession of 65 illegal firearms.
During a routine traffic stop, he was apprehended and subsequently identified as the driver of the truck involved in the heist, according to the police.
Authorities are currently conducting an ongoing search for a former Air Canada employee who is believed to have provided assistance to the thieves, along with two additional individuals.
The gold and foreign currency, which was stolen in the heist, had been ordered from a refinery in Zurich. It had been transported to Toronto on an Air Canada flight.
According to Mavity, the gold and cargo were transported from the plane to a cargo facility shortly after it landed on April 17, 2023.
Later that evening, a suspect drove a five-ton truck to the facility and presented a cargo warehouse attendant with a fraudulent airway bill to retrieve the shipment. According to Mavity, the airway bill was a duplicate of one that had been used the day before to pick up a shipment of seafood.
After loading the container filled with gold and foreign currency onto the truck, the suspect drove away. However, the container was not found when Brink’s Canada employees arrived to collect it later that night, as stated by Mavity.
