Airport £12million gold heist leaves police stumped as container disappears

21 April 2023 , 08:04

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Toronto Pearson International in Canada (Image: NurPhoto via Getty Images)

A group of robbers successfully seized a cargo container with gold and other valuables estimated to be worth just over $20million Canadian dollars (£12.3million), police confirmed.

The high-profile heist happened at Canada's busiest airport after a flight carrying the cargo landed at Toronto Pearson International on Monday evening, Peel Regional Police Inspector Stephen Duivesteyn told reporters.

After the plane was unloaded, the shipment was brought to a holding facility, from which it was removed “by illegal means”, he said.

Duivesteyn described the cargo as a “regular aircraft container” size and declined to give details on where the plane came from.

He continued: "As per normal procedure, the aircraft was unloaded and cargo was transported from the aircraft to a holding cargo facility.

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Peel Police Inspector Stephen Duivesteyn (Canadian Press/REX/Shutterstock)

"The container contained a high-value shipment. It did contain gold but it was not exclusive to gold. It contained other items of monetary value.

"We're three days in, so our investigators have their eyes open to all avenues."

A person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation, told The Washington Post that Air Canada had flown in the cargo and it was being held at a site managed by the carrier when it vanished.

In a statement released late Thursday, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority said they wish to “clarify that thieves accessed the public side of a warehouse that is leased to a third party, outside of our primary security line.”

According to government data, the country is the world’s fourth largest producer of gold and exported 21.3 billion Canadian dollars (£8 bn) worth of it in 2021.

China produces the most gold, followed by Australia and Russia before Canada.

It is not the first time that gold has vanished at a Canadian airport.

In 1952, six of 10 boxes of gold travelling on a plane from Toronto’s airport had vanished by the time the plane landed in Montreal.

In, 1974, five gold bars, worth 4.6 million Canadian dollars (£2.7m) in current money and destined for the Royal Canadian Mint, were stolen from a lockup in Ottawa’s airport after a guard was threatened with guns and handcuffed to a pipe.

Rachel Hagan