Bandits made off with nearly C$20 million in gold and other valuables at Toronto’s main airport in an Air Canada gold heist that hearkens back to a similar incident in 1952.
Air Canada Gold Heist In Toronto
Initial reports reveal a TD Bank intra-bank transfer sent on Air Canada was intercepted at Toronto Pearson International Airport. The contents of the container, which included gold and other valuables totaling C$20 million (about 14.8 million USD) were brought to a warehouse on the airport premises. From there, the gold was accessed via the public-facing side of the warehouse and stolen.
Inspector Stephen Duivesteyn, who is one of the investigators looking into the theft, offered the following assessment:
“An aircraft arrived here at the airport in the early evening. As per normal procedure, the aircraft was unloaded and cargo was transported from the aircraft to a holding cargo facility. What I can say is that the container [had] a high-value shipment. It did contain gold but was not exclusive to gold and contained other items of monetary value.”
It is thought that the entire cache of gold in the shipping container had a value of CAD 140 million, so it appears that thieves only ran off with a small portion of it.
This theft is not the only gold heist in the history of Air Canada.
On 25 September 1952, approximately C$215,000 worth of gold was stolen at Toronto’s Malton Airport (worth about C$2.3 million when adjusted for inflation). In that heist, wooden boxes of gold were grabbed from inside a steel cage in the cargo area before being loaded on a plane to Monroe.
Malton is the precursor to Toronto Pearson Airport and the airline impacted in 1952, Trans-Canada Air Lines, later changed its name to Air Canada.
CONCLUSION
Canadian police are downplaying the Air Canada gold theft as a one-off incident, but it still represents a sizable screw-up or inside job. You would think that such valuable cargo would be met with an armored vehicle rather than be taken to a cargo warehouse that ultimately was not all that secure. The police investigation for suspects continues.
This is something you’d see in a movie or something. This is definitely going to be something I’ll have a conversation about with the KE escort while going through T1 security and heading to the lounge within an hour minutes at JFK.
One would think moving such a high value shipment should require a security escort! And how much would that much gold weigh?
Wouldn’t weigh much. Costs $2000 for a light ounce of gold. So that much gold only weight 625 pounds.
Exactly why we can be puzzled when domestic flights divert internationally and then return to origin. Not making any accusations but still. Lots going on worldwide. MH370 was an interest before Netflix. And while the series was flawed and not exceptionally great, it still red pilled, I think, enough, for most people to at least read in between the lines >> more may be going on than meets the eye
I did an Air Canada Gold heist (or was it 75K?) back in 2021. It wasn’t worth it.
LOL. Was certainly worth it for me. I miss the status so much.
I wish I had used it more, but I just don’t fly Star much, and the two trips I took to Canada while I was 75K were on AA. AUS-YHZ is pretty easy to snag at 9K. Such a great deal.
While it was an AC flight and facility it has been revealed that Brinks was coordinating the shipment. So there are many hands in this inside job which may make it very difficult to determine who is behind this inside job.