CA$ 30m gold heist: Stolen bars may be in India, say police

Toronto: Gold, worth over CA$ 30 million, stolen during the largest heist in Canadian history, may have ended up in India, according to law enforcement.

The gold, in 6600 bars, was stolen from an Air Canada cargo terminal in Toronto’s Pearson Airport on April 17 last year. But it may not be recovered, as a Peel Police Service Board heard during a June 21 meeting, details of which appeared in Canadian media on Saturday.

“We believe a large portion has gone overseas to markets that are flush with gold,” Peel Regional Police or PRP’s lead investigator in the case Detective Sergeant Mike Mavity said.

“That would be Dubai, or India, where you can take gold with serial numbers on it and they will still honour it and melt it down…and we believe that happened very shortly after the incident,” according to a report in the outlet CBC News.

PRP had earlier described this theft as the largest gold heist in Canada ever. According to PRP on April 17, 2023, at 3:56 pm, a flight landed at Pearson International Airport from Zurich, Switzerland, with a cargo containing 6600 bars of .9999% pure gold, weighing 400 kilograms, and CA$ 2.5 million worth in foreign currency. Shortly after landing, it was offloaded and transported to a separate location on Airport property. On April 18, 2023 at 2:43 am, the cargo was reported missing to police.

Two Indo-Canadians working in the warehouse from where gold was taken were allegedly involved in the heist. They were Parmpal Sidhu, 54, from Brampton, who was arrested in May this year, and Simran Preet Panesar, 31, also from Brampton, who worked as a manager there and actually gave the police a tour of the facility after the robbery, before resigning and is now believed to be abroad. A friend of Sidhu, 36-year-old Archit Grover, who was also wanted in the case, was taken into custody in May after returning to Canada from India.

On April 17 this year, PRP said working with the Philadelphia Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives or ATF, it had “identified and charged or issued warrants for nine individuals with over 19 charges.”

Among them was Sidhu, Amit Jalota, 40, from Oakville, Ammad Chaudhary, 43, from Georgetown, Ali Raza, 37, from Toronto, and Prasath Paramalingam, 35, from Brampton. Canada-wide arrest warrants were issued at the time for Panesar, Grover and Arsalan Chaudhary, 42, from Mississauga. Another accused Durante King-Mclean, a 25-year-old man from Brampton, is in custody in the United States.