Individuals disguise a cargo of seafood to steal 400 kg of gold at a Canadian airport

Canadian investigators have revealed that a fraudulent bill of lading, based on a real shipment of seafood, was presented by a suspect during the alleged theft of 6,600 gold bars from an Air Canada cargo facility in Toronto last year.

The gold, weighing 400 kg and worth around US$14.5 million, was inside a container that was transported to Toronto’s Pearson Airport on an Air Canada flight.

Speaking at a Peel Regional Police press conference on April 17, Sergeant Mike Mavity said five suspects have been arrested and four others are the subject of arrest warrants. Some of these individuals are former Air Canada employees. 19 charges were filed, Mavity said, adding that the case expanded from a robbery investigation to activities such as firearms trafficking.

The gold had been ordered from a refinery in Zurich and the flight carrying it arrived at Pearson at 3.56pm on April 17 last year. Approximately two and a half hours later, at 6:32 p.m., a suspect arrived at the company’s loading facility in a truck, reversing to the loading location before approaching the warehouse with the fraudulent document.

Mavity said the knowledge was duplicated from the original document of a legitimate shipment of seafood that was collected the day before. “Once inside the warehouse, the suspect handed him over to an Air Canada cargo warehouse employee,” said the police. “A short time later, a forklift arrived with the container of gold and currency and loaded it into the back of the suspect’s truck.”

When Brink’s Canada representatives went to pick up the shipment from the cargo facility around 9:30 p.m., Air Canada employees attempted to locate the container but realized it was missing. Police were contacted about 5 hours later.

Mavity said the subsequent investigation recovered some of the items, including money believed to have come from the sale of the gold, as well as equipment believed to have been used to reshape the metal.

The press conference took place in the presence of the truck used during the alleged robbery.