An arrest has been made a year after millions in gold and cash were stolen from the Toronto airport

TORONTO — Police have made an arrest in the theft of a cargo container containing more than C$20 million ($14.5 million) worth of gold and other items stolen from Toronto's Pearson International Airport a year ago, authorities said Tuesday.

Peel Regional Police and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms will announce details and arrests at a new conference call Wednesday in the case.

Police said the “high-value” container was seized from the holding area after it was disembarked from the plane last April. The missing goods were reported to the police a short time later. Police declined to provide details at the time.

Brinks, an American cash handling company, later sued Air Canada for the theft. According to the company's filing last year, a thief made off with the valuable cargo on April 17 after presenting a fake document at an Air Canada warehouse.

In a Nov. 8 statement of defense, Air Canada denied “every allegation” in Brink's lawsuit, saying it had honored its carriage contracts and denied any wrongdoing or “reckless” conduct.

The country's largest airline also said Brink did not take into account the cost of carriage on the bill of lading – usually a document detailing a carrier's shipment – and that a multilateral treaty known as the Montreal Convention would be covered if Brink suffered a loss. Liability of Air Canada.

In federal court filings for breach of contract and millions of dollars in damages, Brink said an “unknown person” gained access to the airline's cargo hold and presented a “fraudulent” cargo document shortly after the Air Canada flight from Zurich landed in Pearson.

According to the lawsuit, the employees gave the thief 400 kilograms of gold in the form of 24 ingots and about 2 million dollars in cash, and he immediately “ran away with the load.”