Multiple arrests, 19 charges filed in connection with $22.5 million Pearson gold heist

Police say they have arrested several people and laid 19 charges in connection with the theft of nearly $22.5 million in gold and cash from Toronto Pearson International Airport last spring.

In a press conference Wednesday, Peel Regional Police said a joint task force investigation with the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) also intercepted a “large quantity of firearms” intended to be brought into Canada by people allegedly involved in the theft.

“This is a sensational story and, as we joke, belongs in a Netflix series,” Peel police chief Nishan Durayappa said.

Leading investigator Det.-Sergeant. Mike Mavity has called the daring heist at an Air Canada cargo facility the biggest gold heist in Canadian history and suggests two airline employees played a key role in pulling it off.

One of those employees, a 54-year-old man from Brampton who worked at the warehouse, was arrested and the other, a 31-year-old man also from Brampton, was issued a Canada-wide arrest warrant. Mawiti said he worked as a manager and led a “tour” of the cargo facility for police after the theft before leaving Air Canada last summer.

“They needed people inside Air Canada to facilitate this theft,” Mawiti said.

On April 17, 2023, 6,600 bars of pure gold valued at approximately $20 million and approximately $2.5 million were stolen from the Air Canada cargo hold shortly after arriving on a flight from Zurich.

A man driving a five-ton truck drove up to the compound and entered the warehouse by presenting a legitimate airline bill — a document usually issued by the carrier. The gold and cash were then loaded into the truck, and the driver drove off.

Police later discovered that the waybill was actually a duplicate of a shipping document for seafood that had been delivered the day before, Mawiti said. It was printed at an Air Canada facility, he added.

Using security video collected from businesses and other sources, police pieced together the driver's next route before losing track of the truck north of Milton, Mawiti said.

Investigators eventually identified the driver as 25-year-old Durante King-McLean, Mavity reports.

King-McLean is now in police custody in the U.S. after he was arrested in September during a traffic stop in rural Pennsylvania, Maviti said. Police found 65 firearms in his rental car, including two modified to be fully automatic and five untraceable “ghost guns” without serial numbers, police said in a news release about the arrests.

Mavity and the ATF claim the guns were shipped to Canada.

“We believe that some of the people involved in this gold theft are also involved in aspects of the sale of firearms,” ​​Mawiti told reporters. Peel police also issued an arrest warrant for King-McLean, who is wanted in Canada for theft over $5,000 and possession of proceeds of crime.

Last year, the task force executed 37 search warrants related to burglary investigations, Mawiti said. They found $430,000 in cash, six pure gold bracelets worth about $89,000, as well as melting pots, ingots and molds.

“We believe the gold has been melted down and released into the local and international markets,” Mawiti said.

Investigators also found two debt lists, often associated with drug-trafficking investigations. According to Mavity, one of the listings is for $10.23 million and the other is for $9.94 million.

“We believe these lists show where the money was distributed when the gold was sold by the suspects,” he said.