It was a brazen theft: thousands of gold bars and millions of dollars in banknotes stolen from Toronto International Airport a year ago.
On Wednesday, Canadian authorities announced the arrest of nine people, including an Air Canada employee, in connection with the theft of more than 20 million Canadian dollars, approximately $14.5 million, in gold bars and $2.5 million, approximately $1.8 million in banknotes. that disappeared from a warehouse at Toronto Pearson Airport in April 2023.
Arrest warrants have also been issued for three other people, including a manager at the airline.
“This story is sensational,” Nishan Duraiappah, chief of Peel Regional Police, said at a news conference on Wednesday as he stood in front of a truck he said was used in the robbery. “One that we jokingly say belongs in a Netflix series.” Peel Police are responsible for law enforcement at the Toronto Airport.
The gold, Chief Duraiappah said, was used in part to purchase weapons destined for Canada. The man driving the truck used in the gold heist was arrested in Pennsylvania in September after a police officer stopped a rental car he was driving for a traffic violation and found 65 guns, two of which were fully automatic rifles. The man has been charged with conspiracy to illegally traffic firearms into Canada.
It is unclear whether that arrest and a separate investigation by the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives into firearms smuggling uncovered the broader theft plot. Eric DeGree, an ATF special agent who was at the news conference, said the agency contacted Peel police after finding the man’s name in a police information database.
The gold theft, which Chief Duraiappah said was Canada’s largest, turned out to be remarkably simple. The gold and cash arrived at Toronto airport on April 17, 2023 in a special container aboard an Air Canada flight from Switzerland and was moved to one of the airline’s warehouses.
The container contained 6,600 gold bars destined for a Toronto bank and banknotes destined for a currency exchange.
About two hours later, a truck driven by the man arrested in Pennsylvania pulled up to the warehouse. The man was carrying a bill of lading – a document typically issued by a carrier detailing a shipment – that gave him access to the warehouse, police said.
It was actually a duplicate of a bill of lading, printed on an Air Canada printer, for a shipment of seafood picked up a day earlier.
The container with the gold bars and banknotes was loaded into the truck.
“They needed people inside Air Canada to facilitate this theft,” Peel police detective Mike Mavity said at the news conference.
Video footage showed the truck traveling along Canada’s busiest highway before eventually disappearing from view in a rural area west of the city.
Early the next morning, Peel police officers were called after an armored truck from Brink arrived with the actual bill of lading for the shipment of gold and banknotes.
Police said Wednesday that they believe the gold bars, which had serial numbers, had all been melted down and that they had seized crucibles. The only gold recovered, police said, were six bracelets made from about 89,000 Canadian dollars worth of pure gold. Among those arrested was the owner of a Toronto jewelry store.
During the press conference, police showed two handwritten lists detailing the payouts to the people involved in the theft.
“This is a story of reverse alchemy,” said Nando Iannicca, the president of the regional government. “This is about how gold becomes weapons.”