In April 2023, I wrote about a gold heist at Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ), which sounded like it was straight out of a movie. Roughly a year later, it has now been announced that nine people have been arrested in connection to this, and police have explained how this operation played out (thanks to Dave for flagging this)…
How gold & cash were stolen from an airport facility
This incident happened on April 17, 2023, and involves an Air Canada flight that had landed in Toronto from Switzerland. The jet had quite some valuable cargo, including a container with 6,600 gold bars valued at 14.5 million USD (destined for a Toronto-based bank) and 1.8 million USD of cash (bound for a currency exchange).
The container with the valuables was moved from the aircraft to an Air Canada warehouse at the airport. Around two hours later, a truck driver appeared with a waybill to pick up the shipment, which gave him access to the warehouse.
As it later turned out, this was actually the duplicate of a waybill for a shipment of seafood, which had been picked up a day earlier. However, it was printed using an Air Canada printer.
The container with the valuables was loaded onto a truck, and video recordings showed the truck traveling down the highway, before eventually disappearing from sight in a rural area.
The following morning, a Brink’s armored truck arrived at the cargo facility to pick up the shipment, with the actual waybill. That’s when police were called, since the shipment was missing (Brink’s ended up suing Air Canada over time).
As you can see, this was a remarkably simple plot, and just involved someone with access to Air Canada’s systems printing a waybill.
Nine were arrested in connection to this plot
In the past several months, nine people have been arrested in relation to this heist (including one Air Canada employee), and there are arrest warrants out for three additional people.
It’s interesting how this all started to unravel. In September 2023, a man was pulled over in a rental car in Pennsylvania for a traffic violation. Police found 65 guns in the car, including two fully automatic rifles, which he was transporting to Canada. His name was found in a police database, and the man was charged with conspiracy to illegally traffic firearms into Canada.
As he was investigated more closely, it became clear that this had a connection to the gold heist plot. All the gold bars had serial numbers, so the belief is that the gold bars were melted down, as police seized smelting pots. The only gold recovered came in the form of six bracelets made of pure gold, and the owner of a jewelry store in Toronto was arrested in connection to this. Police also recovered two handwritten notes detailing the payouts for those involved in the theft.
So the gold was sold and then used to purchase guns, which were supposed to be trafficked from the United States to Canada. While executing the plot was easy enough, getting away with it is a different story, given the number of people involved.
Bottom line
Nine arrests have taken place in connection to the gold heist that happened at Toronto Airport about a year ago. A valuable cargo shipment of gold and cash was stolen using an unauthorized waybill, which was printed by an Air Canada employee. The gold was melted and turned into jewelry, and then the money was reportedly used to import firearms into Canada from the United States.
Well done to investigators for uncovering this plot! Now we just need a Netflix show about how this all went down…
What do you make of this gold heist scheme?
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