Nine people are facing charges in what authorities are calling the biggest gold theft in Canadian history from Toronto’s international airport a year ago, police say.
Police from Ontario’s Peel region said on Wednesday that 6,600 gold bars worth more than $CAN20 million ($22.5 million), and $CAN2.5 million in foreign currencies were stolen.
The gold was melted down and used to purchase illegal firearms, police said.
Those charged include an Air Canada warehouse employee and a former Air Canada manager who gave police a tour of cargo of the facility at Pearson International airport after the theft.
A jewellery store owner has also been charged.
“This story is a sensational one and which probably, we jokingly say, belongs in a Netflix series,” Peel regional Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah said.
Peel regional Detective Sergeant Mike Mavity said the gold bars, weighing 419 kilograms, and foreign currency, ordered from a refinery in Zurich, Switzerland, were transported in the haul of an Air Canada flight on April 17 last year.
He said that afternoon a truck driver arrived at the airline’s cargo warehouse with a fraudulent bill that was provided to an airline warehouse attendant.
Sergeant Mavity said a bill for seafood that was picked up the day before was used to pick up the gold.
The duplicate bill was printed off at the Air Canada warehouse, he said.
“They needed people within Air Canada to facilitate this theft,” Sergeant Mavity said in front of the truck police say was used in the theft.
Sergeant Mavity said police are searching for the Air Canada manager who gave police a tour of the facility in the days after the theft.
He said that manager left his job last year and said they have an idea of where he is.
Sergeant Mavity said some of the suspects were known to police and some were not.
He said they had seized six crudely made bracelets made of gold.
Five suspects were arrested in Canada and released on bail pending trial.
One suspect, originally from Ontario, was arrested in Pennsylvania along with firearms and remains in custody in the United States.
Canada-wide warrants have been issued for the remaining three suspects, police said.
Peel Regional Deputy Chief Nick Milinovich said only $CAN90,000 of the more than $CAN20 million has been recovered.
Police also recovered some 65 firearms that investigators allege were purchased with the proceeds from the theft.
Following the heist, Miami-based transport and security services provider Brinks sued Air Canada in October, alleging “negligence and carelessness” by the airline.
Brinks had been hired by Swiss bank Raiffeisen Schweiz and precious metals refining company Valcambi to move the valuables from Zurich to Toronto.
In a statement of defence on November 8, Air Canada rejected “each and every allegation” in the Brinks lawsuit, saying it fulfilled its carriage contracts and denying any improper or “careless” conduct.
AP/Reuters
Posted , updated
