Gold stolen in Toronto airport heist now likely overseas, police admit
CBC
Peel Regional Police have quietly conceded that millions in gold stolen from Toronto Pearson Airport in April 2023 was likely quickly smuggled out of Canada to the Middle East or South Asia.
"We believe a large portion has gone overseas to markets that are flush with gold," lead investigator Det. Sgt. Mike Mavity told members of the Peel Police Service Board during a June 21 meeting.
"That would be Dubai, or India, where you can take gold with serial numbers on it and they will still honour it and melt it down…. And we believe that happened very shortly after the incident."
Police have been investigating the low-tech robbery for almost 15 months — probing how a man gained entry to an Air Canada Cargo terminal with a duplicate waybill for a shipment of seafood, and then drove off with a palette full of gold bars. But few updates have been given to the press or public.
On the first anniversary of the heist, investigators held a splashy media conference to announce they had arrested nine men in connection with the case and were searching for three others.
Yet little was said about the links between the alleged criminals, or what ultimately happened to the 400 kilograms of still-missing gold.
The new Police Service Board briefing — delivered on a summer Friday, with no media present — came on the heels of a CBC News investigation highlighting several lingering questions about the heist, including the force's assertions that the robbery was a case of "reverse alchemy" where gold became guns, as evidenced by the seizure of 65 pistols. Peel Police declined an interview request for that story, and refused to answer written questions, even those pertaining to the most basic details of the crime.
Members of the board devoted several minutes of the meeting to criticism of the CBC News report, but the presentation by investigators validated much of the content of the CBC investigation.
In addition to admitting the trail now points to Dubai and India, police also acknowledged the 6,600 gold bars were worth millions more at the time of the heist than they had repeatedly stated.
"Whether it's $20 million or $34 million might be a mitigating factor come sentencing, but it doesn't in my opinion change a lot," said Mavity. "From a police standpoint, the offence is theft over $5000."
The detectives also clarified statements they made during the April press conference, backing away from prior suggestions that all of the stolen gold had been melted down in the basement of a Mississauga jewellery store.
"We believe a very small quantity was melted at that jewellery shop," said Det. Gord Oakes.
"At no point were we ever alleging that 400 kilograms of gold were melted down in a small jewelry shop by hand. That wasn't the message that we were trying to relay," added Mavity.
For the first time, police sketched out some of the alleged links between the men they have charged in connection with the robbery. Among the new details:
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