Fraudulent air waybill used in $14.8M gold heist at YYZ

A fraudulent air waybill was the catalyst for Canada’s largest-ever gold heist last year. In the evening hours of April 17, 2023, an Air Canada cargo shipment of $14.8 million in gold bars and $1.8 million in foreign currency was stolen from a cargo warehouse at Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ). Among the suspects is a man, identified by police as the Air Canada cargo warehouse manager at the airport, seen on closed-circuit TV loading the shipment into a truck. Police say an organized ring of criminals orchestrated the theft. They used a copy of an air waybill that was used to process a seafood shipment the day before, officials of the Peel Regional Police Department said during a news conference today. Air waybill Air waybills are paper documents that track shipments through the shipping process. Electronic air waybills (eAWB) are digital versions that are more efficient and make tracking easier, according to IATA . In the most recent available data, a September 2020 IATA report showed that eAWBs comprised 71.3% of the 836,925 air waybills processed that month, leaving 242,709 shipments processed with paper air waybills. [caption id="attachment_57142756" align="alignleft" width="233"] A fraudulent air waybill alleged to be from an April 2023 cargo theft at Toronto Pearson International Airport was recovered by the Peel Regional Police Department. (Courtesy/Peel Regional Police Department)[/caption] “The air waybill [used in the Air Canada theft] was for a legitimate shipment of seafood that was picked up the day before this duplicate air waybill was printed off from a printer within Air Canada Cargo,” Peel Regional Police Detective Sgt. Mike Mavity said during the news conference. What percentage of Air Canada shipments use electronic air waybills is unclear. Air Canada did not respond to inquiries from Air Cargo Next . Charges, recovery Nine suspects have been charged in connection with the crime, including two Air Canada employees, officials said. Six of the suspects have been arrested and police have arrest warrants for the other three. Together, the suspects have been charged with 19 counts of theft , conspiracy to commit an indictable offense, firearms trafficking and possession of stolen property. One suspect, Parmpal Sidhu , 54, was an Air Canada cargo warehouse manager at YYZ at the time of the theft, police said. Canadian CCTV video surveillance shows a man, identified by law enforcement as Sidhu, loading the gold shipment into an unmarked white 5-ton truck on April 17, 2023. The footage was shown during the news conference. The driver of the truck, who presented the fraudulent air waybill, then drove off with the shipment, Mavity said. At 9:30 p.m., cash and valuables management company Brink’s arrived at the Air Canada cargo facility to pick up the shipment, which had come from Zurich, Mavity said. When employees could not locate the shipment, the Peel Regional Police Department was contacted, Mavity said. Brink’s sued Air Canada for $14.8 million in October 2023 over the loss. Law enforcement officials, who dubbed the case “24-Karat,” said items recovered included: $90,000 worth of gold bracelets; $430,000 in Canadian currency ($312,610 U.S. dollars ); Lists of names and total money owed to each amounting to $19 million; Smelting and casting tools to melt gold; A 5-ton white truck; 65 unserialized firearms; and The fraudulent air waybill. Smuggling attempt The remaining gold and valuables have not been recovered. It is suspected that the stolen goods were used as payment for illegal firearms to be sent to Canada from the United States, Mavity said. One suspect, Durante King-Mclean , 25, was driving a truck near Philadelphia when he was stopped for a minor traffic violation, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Special Agent in Charge Eric DeGree said during the news conference. Law enforcement officials reportedly found the 65 firearms in the truck during the stop and arrested King-Mclean, DeGree said. [caption id="attachment_57142759" align="alignright" width="300"] Firearms collected from a suspect's vehicle were seized outside Philadelphia by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. (Courtesy/Peel Regional Police Department)[/caption] “A court authorized a search warrant for the vehicle that led to the recovery of those firearms that were allegedly destined to be smuggled into Canada,” DeGree said. “One of those firearms had an obliterated serial number, 11 of them were stolen and two of them were converted to fully automatic machine guns [as defined] under United States federal law.” King-Mclean is being held by law enforcement in the United States for possession of illegal weapons and attempting to smuggle firearms into Canada, DeGree said. The investigation is ongoing, Mavity said.

Fraudulent air waybill used in $14.8M gold heist at YYZ

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