Men of Indian Origin Arrested in Canada’s Biggest Gold, Cash Heist

At least two men of Indian origin were among the nine persons arrested in connection with the most audacious heist in Canada’s history.

The arrested men included Parmpal Sidhu and Simran Preet Panesar of Indian origin.

This major heist took place on April 17 in 2023. Over 22 million Canadian dollars’ worth of gold bars and foreign currency were stolen away from a secure storage facility within the Toronto airport’s premises. The modus operandi to carry out the heist involved forged paperwork to gain access to the precious cargo.

A cargo container that arrived at Pearson International Airport from Zurich, Switzerland, aboard an Air Canada flight contained 6,600 bars of .9999% pure gold, weighing 400 kilograms, along with 2.5 million Canadian dollars’ worth in foreign currency.

Within hours of its arrival, the valuable cargo vanished.

Central to the heist plan were individuals employed by Air Canada. Parmpal Sidhu and Simran Preet Panesar, whose positions within the airline provided them with insider knowledge crucial to executing the heist.

The arrest of Durante King-Mclean, a 25-year-old man from Brampton, in the US exposed a parallel criminal network, revealing ties between the gold thieves and a scheme to smuggle firearms into Canada.

Police found that the stolen gold had been melted down and transformed into other forms, such as jewellery, in an attempt to conceal its origins.