Toronto Pearson gold heist: Peel Regional Police set to announce arrests

Peel Regional Police is set to provide an update Wednesday morning into last year’s high-profile gold heist at Toronto Pearson International Airport.

The Toronto-area police force, as well as the U.S. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bureau, said in a news release Tuesday that the update will involve “details and arrests made concerning the theft of gold from Pearson International Airport.”

The update is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. and will be livestreamed on globalnews.ca.

2:24 $20 million gold heist at Pearson

The heist, which saw $20 million worth of gold and other “high-value” items stolen at Canada’s largest airport, drew international attention at the time.

The public first became aware of it on April 20, 2023; the heist occurred three days earlier.

At the time, Peel Regional Police Insp. Stephen Duivesteyn said an aircraft carrying the precious cargo landed at Pearson, and its cargo was transported to a holding facility where it was “removed by illegal means.”

“We’re looking at all angles on how this item was stolen, so I don’t really have a lot of details on how it was stolen to provide or any suspect,” Duivesteyn told reporters on April 20, 2023.

He didn’t say which airline shipped the cargo, where the cargo was headed, or where the plane came from.

“We’re unable to provide specifics to this investigation because we’re three days in.”

Details of what reportedly happened that day surfaced in an October lawsuit filed by Brink’s Inc. against Air Canada. The claims have not been tested in court.

2:05 Brink’s sues Air Canada over $23M Toronto gold and cash heist

In court filings, the American security company said an “unidentified individual” gained access to the airline’s cargo warehouse on April 17 and presented a “fraudulent” waybill — a document typically issued by a carrier with details on the shipment — to Air Canada personnel.

Staff then handed over 400 kilograms of gold — worth roughly 13.6 million Swiss francs, or more than $20 million — plus nearly US$2 million in cash to the thief, who promptly “absconded with the cargo,” the statement of claim says.

Brink’s arranged in mid-April for Air Canada to haul the cargo to Toronto from Zurich. It was delivered at Pearson just before 4 p.m. on April 17, deposited at an on-site Air Canada warehouse at 5:50 p.m. and retrieved by the mysterious thief, who showed up about 40 minutes later, the filings state.

Claiming breach of contract, Brink’s is seeking about $23 million in damages, as well as special damages and costs.

Air Canada refused to comment at the time as it is before the courts.

— with files from The Canadian Press

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