New Delhi:

Canada solved one of the most audacious robberies in its history Thursday, unraveling a web of gold, cash and guns. The plot, reminiscent of a crime thriller script, unfolds at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, leaving investigators trying to solve a multi-million dollar mystery.

The robbery occurred on April 17, 2023, and a large amount of wealth disappeared for unknown reasons: gold bars and foreign currency worth more than 22 million Canadian dollars were stolen from a secure storage facility at the airport. The modus operandi for committing a robbery included forging documents to obtain valuable goods.

robbery

On April 17 last year, a cargo container arrived at Pearson International Airport on an Air Canada flight from Zurich, Switzerland. It contained 6,600 0.9999% pure gold bars weighing 400 kilograms, as well as foreign currency worth C$2.5 million. The precious cargo will be safely stored at the airport before reaching its final destination. However, they never did.

Surveillance video captured the moment a truck driven by one of the defendants drove into the warehouse and loaded a container filled with gold bars and banknotes. Within hours of arrival, the valuable cargo disappeared into the night, setting off a chain of events that crossed national borders.

At the heart of the theft scheme were employees of the country’s flagship airline, Air Canada, who allegedly played a key role in facilitating the theft. Among those arrested were former and current employees, including Parmpal Sidhu and Simran Preet Panesar, whose positions at the airline provided them with insider knowledge crucial to carrying out the robbery.

hunt

The next morning, police were alerted to the missing cargo, launching an investigation spanning international jurisdictions. After months of relentless investigation, law enforcement agencies made a major breakthrough. Arrests were made, warrants were issued, and a web of connections began to unravel.

The investigation uncovered a tangled web of people involved, including people of Indian origin.

The robbery was not over. In a dramatic turn of events, police on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border join forces to uncover a link between stolen gold and illegal gun trafficking. The arrest of Durant King-Mclean, 25, of Brampton, in the United States has exposed a parallel criminal network linking gold thieves to a scheme to smuggle guns into Canada. connect.

Police seized evidence that the stolen gold had been melted down and transformed into other forms such as jewelry in an attempt to conceal its origin.

A total of seven people were arrested after a year-long investigation.