Daring thieves pull off ‘very rare’ heist of gold cargo passing through Canada’s biggest airport

Shipment reported missing after arriving on an aircraft early Monday evening

Representative image: An airport staff member tows cargo along the tarmac (AFP via Getty Images)

Thieves pulled off a “very rare” heist in which a C$20m ($14.84m) cargo of gold and other “high value” items were stolen from Canada’s biggest airport.

The Toronto Pearson International Airport is rated as one of the top 30 cargo airports in the world. It is also where the gold mined from the country is held before being flown overseas.

But the gold shipment was reported missing after arriving on an aircraft early Monday evening, said Peel regional police inspector Stephen Duivesteyn.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have been called to help in the investigation of the heist – said to be one of the biggest in Canada’s history, as per The Guardian.

After the aircraft landed, the cargo was unloaded and taken to a holding facility, in line with normal procedure, he said. But the shipment disappeared some time later.

“Subsequent to its arrival this high-value cargo was removed by illegal means from the holding facility,” Mr Duivesteyn said.

The Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) said it was aware of the theft, adding that the thieves accessed the public side of a warehouse leased to a third party, outside the GTAA’s primary security line.

The theft “did not involve access to Toronto Pearson itself and did not pose a threat to passengers or GTAA staff”, the authority said in a statement.

The cargo was reported missing to police a short time later.

Mr Duivesteyn would not say where the aircraft carrying the cargo had come from or its final destination.

“This is very rare,” he said, without revealing details around the intended destination of the stolen cargo.

This isn’t the first major gold heist to happen at a Toronto-area airport. Earlier in September 1952, $215,000 worth of gold bullion was stolen at Malton airport, after six out of 10 wooden boxes of gold bound for Montreal went missing.

“It just seemed to vanish,” one investigator had told the Toronto Star at the time. The case remains unsolved till date.

Additional reporting by agencies