Police admit stolen gold from Toronto airport heist likely now overseas

Peel Regional Police have quietly conceded that millions in gold stolen from Toronto Pearson Airport in April 2023 were likely quickly smuggled out of Canada to the Middle East or South Asia.

“We believe a large portion has gone overseas to markets that are flush with gold,” lead investigator Det. Sgt. Mike Mavity told members of the Peel Police Service Board during a June 21 meeting.

“That would be Dubai or India, where you can take gold with serial numbers on it and they will still honor it and melt it down…. And we believe that happened very shortly after the incident.”

Police have been investigating the low-tech robbery for almost 15 months — probing how a man gained entry to an Air Canada Cargo terminal with a duplicate waybill for a shipment of seafood, and then drove off with a pallet full of gold bars. Few updates have been given to the press or public.

On the first anniversary of the heist, investigators held a media conference to announce they had arrested nine men in connection with the case and were searching for three others.

Yet little was said about the links between the alleged criminals, or what ultimately happened to the 400 kilograms of still-missing gold. The new Police Service Board briefing — delivered on a summer Friday, with no media present — came on the heels of a CBC News investigation highlighting several lingering questions about the heist, including the force’s assertions that the robbery was a case of “reverse alchemy” where gold became guns, as evidenced by the seizure of 65 pistols. Peel Police declined an interview request for that story and refused to answer written questions, even those pertaining to the most basic details of the crime.

Members of the board devoted several minutes of the meeting to criticism of the CBC News report, but the presentation by investigators validated much of the content of the CBC investigation.

For the first time, police sketched out some of the alleged links between the men they have charged in connection with the robbery. Among the new details:

• Archit Grover, charged with theft over $5,000 and conspiracy to commit an indictable offense, is a “longtime friend” of Parmpal Sidhu, who was working at the Air Canada Cargo terminal at the time of the heist, and now faces identical charges.
• Grover is the owner of the white truck used in the robbery, and the employer of Durante King-McLean, the man police say was driving the truck. King-McLean also faces a charge of theft over $5,000.
• Grover’s cousin, Amit Jalota, who faces two counts of possession of property obtained by crime, along with charges of theft and conspiracy, “looked after the gold” along with “an associate” Arsalan Chaudhary, who faces the same charges. Police allege that Jalota also “facilitated the melting” of a small quantity of gold via Ali Raza, the owner of a Mississauga jewelry store, who faces a charge of possession of property obtained by crime.
• Prasath Paramalingam and Ammad Chaudhary, who both face accessory after the fact charges, are accused of having “assisted” King-McLean in crossing into the United States after the robbery, and having “provided him with the ability to stay in the U.S. for a long period of time.”