TORONTO — Police have made arrests in the theft of a cargo container that included gold and other items worth over 20 million Canadian dollars ($14.5 million) that were stolen from Toronto’s Pearson International airport a year ago, authorities said Tuesday.
Peel Regional Police and the U.S. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bureau will announce details and arrests at a new conference about the case on Wednesday.
Police said last April that a “high value” container was taken from a holding area facility after being unloaded off a plane. The missing goods were reported to police a short time after that. Police declined to provide more details at the time.
Brinks, an American cash handling company, later sued Air Canada over the theft. According to the company’s filing last year, a thief walked away with the costly cargo after presenting a fake document at an Air Canada warehouse on April 17.
In a Nov. 8 statement of defense, Air Canada rejected “each and every allegation” in the Brink’s lawsuit, saying it fulfilled its carriage contracts and denying any improper or “careless” conduct.
The country’s largest airline also said Brink’s failed to note the value of the haul on the waybill — a document typically issued by a carrier with details of the shipment — and that if Brink’s did suffer losses, a multilateral treaty known as the Montreal Convention would cap Air Canada’s liability.
In Federal Court filings that claim breach of contract and millions of dollars in damages, Brink’s said an “unidentified individual” gained access to the airline’s cargo warehouse and presented a “fraudulent” waybill shortly after an Air Canada flight from Zurich landed at Pearson.
The statement of claim says the staff then handed over 400 kilograms of gold in the form of 24 bars plus nearly $2 million in cash to the thief, who promptly “absconded with the cargo.”
