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Police announce nine suspects in $24M gold and cash heist at Toronto Pearson

Apr. 17, 2024, Mississauga, Ont. – Two men who worked for Air Canada and an alleged firearms trafficker are among nine people charged in a heist of nearly 24 million dollars in gold and cash from Toronto’s Pearson airport a year ago.

Peel Regional Police say the joint investigation with the U-S Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bureau dubbed Project 24 Karat has led to 19 criminal charges filed against the suspects, including multiple counts of theft over five thousand dollars.

The largest gold theft in Canadian history saw gold bars weighing more than 400 kilograms – with a value of over 20-million-dollars – stolen from Pearson International Airport one year ago today.

Police say a suspect driving a five-tonne truck arrived at an Air Canada cargo facility at the airport, and presented a fraudulent airway bill to warehouse employees who loaded the shipment onto his vehicle.

A Canada-wide arrest warrant has been issued for a 31-year-old man from Brampton who police say was a manager at Air Canada at the time of the theft.

Police say he led a tour of the cargo facility for police after the theft, and resigned from Air Canada last summer.

Peel police say investigators have seized one kilogram of gold believed to be from the theft – worth about 89 thousand dollars – as well as smelting equipment and approximately 434 thousand dollars in currency.

They say their investigation also interrupted an attempt to import firearms to Canada from the United States, as the suspect who drove the truck with stolen gold from the airport was later arrested with firearms in Pennsylvania.