The Port of Montreal is the center of car theft in Canada

The port of Montreal has become an important center for the export of stolen vehicles.

From the middle of December to the end of March, the police checked about 400 containers there. It identified nearly 600 stolen vehicles, most of them in the Toronto area.

According to law enforcement agencies, the port has become an important location for organized crime due to its strategic location and large volume of large containers.

“It's a very big port,” said Brian Gast, vice president of investigations at the Équité Association, a national organization formed by insurance companies. The location, which is well connected by road and rail to the greater Toronto area, where many burglaries have been reported, is “very well located” for criminal gangs.

Mr. Gast explains that stolen vehicles are placed in containers in the Toronto area. They obtain false documents, including customs declarations showing their legitimacy, before being shipped to the port by train or truck.

The large volume of goods passing through the Port of Montreal is exploited by organized crime. Last year, it handled at least 1.7 million containers, or nearly 1 million more than the two largest East Coast ports combined. According to the port authorities, 70 percent of legal vehicle exports pass through there.

“(Les voleurs) can sink their containers in the flow of legitimate shipments of goods exported outside of Canada,” says Mr. Gast.

According to experts, power-sharing problems and staffing shortages harm the repressive work of the police.

Port of Montreal spokeswoman Rene LaRouche says port authorities are working closely with police and the Border Services Agency, but they can only open containers to save lives or prevent an environmental disaster.

More than 800 police officers from several forces have access cards that allow them to enter the port. If they have a warrant, they can open the containers, says Mⁱ Larouche. In areas controlled by the Border Patrol, only its agents can search containers without a warrant.

Patrick Brown, the mayor of Brampton in Peel Region, Ontario, said the lack of container inspections at the port of Montreal, which was hit hard by the disaster, is pleasing criminals.

He said Canada has a greater problem with vehicle theft than the U.S. because customs officials have equipment that allows them to inspect a higher percentage of containers.

“Organized crime is risk averse in the United States,” he says. In Canada, we inspect less than one percent of containers. »

Mr. Brown wants the $28 million the federal government recently announced for the Canada Border Services Agency to be used immediately to buy scanners for the Port of Montreal and two marshalling yards in the Toronto area. He said police must enter Customs-controlled areas with or without permission from the Border Services Agency.

“People with GPS on the car can track it to a rail yard or port, but the local police can't do anything about it. »

Since the beginning of the year, Canada Border Services Agency has seized 300 vehicles stolen from rail yards in the Toronto area. In 2023, he found 1,200 cars stolen from the Port of Montreal.

The agency declined to say what percentage of containers are inspected each year. Quebec regional director Annie Beausejour says all containers reported by police will be inspected by customs officials.

“We would like to check all containers leaving the country, but, unfortunately, this is not true,” says M.ⁱ Beusejour. According to him, the agency cannot slow down the flow of goods.

The port of Montreal is clearly understaffed, according to union representatives representing customs officials. President Mark Weber, who testified before the Standing Committee on Security in February, said there were only eight customs agents at the Port of Montreal. He also lamented the lack of space. “When we find six stolen cars, sometimes we have to wait a few days for someone to come and pick them up to check on the others,” he said.

The lack of resources at the Port of Montreal is typical of other port facilities around the world, noted Anna Sergi, a criminologist at the University of Essex in the UK.

(Les agences douanières) focus on imports. No one is engaged in export. We do not invest in exports because it is someone else's problem. The United States is the only country that invests a little, but little, in inspecting exported products. »

The underground world has existed on Montreal's shores for a long time, says Professor Sergi. Western gangs and mafia have long been involved in importing drugs by bribing customs officers and dock workers.

Montreal Police Inspector Dominique Côté says the force has no information to believe organized crime has infiltrated the Port of Montreal, and that could be the reason for the high number of stolen vehicles.

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