Canada
The cargo was reported missing Monday after arriving on a plane early in the evening, police said
Friday 21 April 2023 at 01:18 CET
Police in Canada are investigating a brazen robbery of nearly CA$20 million (US$14.8 million) in gold and other “high value” items at Toronto’s Pearson Airport.
On Thursday evening, Peel Regional Police said the gold and other goods were stolen Monday after containers were unloaded from an airplane.
“A plane arrived here at the airport in the early evening. In accordance with normal procedure, the aircraft was unloaded and the cargo transferred from the aircraft to a cargo holding facility,” said Inspector Stephen Duivesteyn when announcing the theft.
“What I can say is that the container [had] a quality show. It contained gold but was not exclusively gold and contained other items of monetary value.”
Investigators from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police also investigated the theft, which is one of the largest in Canadian history. The Greater Toronto Airports Authority declined to comment on the theft, citing “an active police investigation.”
Northern Ontario gold miners often ship precious metals through the city’s airport, which handles nearly half of the country’s air freight.
Duivesteyn said he wouldn’t call it a “professional” job at this point, adding that the investigation is ongoing and the incident is isolated. Police did not identify the intended destination of the stolen cargo, nor did they confirm that the gold was still in the country.
“It’s very rare,” said Duivesteyn.
But it’s not the first time a Toronto-area airport has made headlines for a gold heist.
On September 25, 1952, $215,000 worth of gold bullion was stolen from Malton Airport, the forerunner of Pearson. At the time, it was the largest gold heist in Canadian history. Adjusted for inflation, the theft would have been worth $2.3 million today.
During this raid, six wooden crates of gold were taken from a steel cage in the airport’s cargo area before being loaded onto a plane bound for Montreal.
“It just seemed to go away,” an investigator told the Toronto Star at the time. The apparently perfect crime without witnesses was never solved.
Trans-Canada Air Lines eventually changed its name to Air Canada in 1965 — the same airline believed to have been affected by Monday’s theft.
Previous high-value heists have targeted a priceless photo and the country’s vast supply of maple syrup. In 2014, mastermind Richard Vallières looted C$17 million worth of syrup from a Quebec warehouse that is part of the province’s strategic reserve. The caper spawned both a wide-ranging investigation that eventually brought him down — and a Hollywood script.
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