TORONTO — Two men who worked for ********** and an alleged ******** trafficker are among nine people charged in a heist of nearly $24 million in gold and cash from Toronto’s Pearson airport a year ago, ****** said Wednesday, offering new details of what happened in the “sensational” case.

Peel Regional ****** said their joint ************* – dubbed Project 24K – with the U.S. Alcohol, Tobacco and ******** Bureau has resulted in a combined 19 criminal charges against the suspects, including multiple counts of theft over $5,000. 

The news comes on the one-year anniversary of the daring heist.

****** Chief Nishan Duraiappah said 6,600 gold bars weighing over 400 kilograms were stolen from Pearson International Airport on April 17, 2023, and had a value of over $20 million. It is the largest gold theft in Canadian history, he said.

Det. Sgt. Mike Mavity, the case manager for Project 24K, said the stolen gold and foreign currency were ordered from a refinery in Zurich and were transported in the hull of an ********** flight to Toronto.

The flight arrived at 3:56 p.m. on April 17, 2023 and the gold and currency were offloaded and brought to an ********** cargo facility at the airport.

A suspect then arrived at the cargo facility driving a five tonne truck and presented a fraudulent airway bill to warehouse employees who loaded the ******** onto his truck, Mavity said

“It’s an actual, legitimate airway bill for seafood. It’s just a duplicate. So that actual seafood was picked up the day before, and they printed it off within ********** Cargo (facility),” he said.

An ********** employee, a 54-year-old man from Brampton, Ont., is among those charged, ****** said.

A Canada-wide ****** warrant has been issued for a 31-year-old-man from Brampton who ****** say was a manager at ********** at the time of the theft. ****** said he led “a tour” of the cargo facility for ****** after the theft, and resigned from ********** last summer.

“They needed people inside ********** to facilitate this theft,” Mavity said.

A lawsuit filed against ********** by American security company Brink’s has alleged that a thief presented a forged document to collect about $23.8 million in goods from a holding facility at Pearson airport.

Brink’s statement of claim alleged that ********** staff handed over 400 kilograms of gold, worth more than $20 million, plus nearly US$2 million in cash to the thief.

********** has denied any improper conduct or responsibility for the theft in its statement of defence and rejected all allegations in the Brink’s lawsuit.

Peel ****** said Wednesday that investigators have seized one kilogram of gold believed to be from the theft, worth about $89,000, as well as smelting equipment and approximately $434,000 in currency.

They said their ************* also interrupted an attempt to import ******** to Canada from the United States, as the suspect who drove the truck with stolen gold from the airport was later arrested with ******** in Pennsylvania.

Mavity said that suspect was stopped by Pennsylvania State ****** near Chambersburg, Pa., in September of last year.

“After a brief foot chase, he was detained and troopers located 65 illegal ******** within the vehicle,” he said.

“We are alleging that some individuals who participated in the gold theft are also involved in aspects of this ******** trafficking.”