Arrests made in $20-million Toronto Pearson airport gold heist

Peel Regional Police say surprise arrests have been made in the Toronto Pearson airport gold heist in a joint investigation with the Philadelphia office of the U.S. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bureau.

Police will announce details Wednesday on “Project 24K” — a secret, joint Canada-u.s. investigation into the high-profile theft of gold from Pearson airport. 24K is short for 24 carats, the measurement for nearly pure gold, which is usually the purity of high-grade gold bars, such as the ones stolen from Pearson.

Details of arrests and circumstances of the theft of more than $20-million in gold bars and US$2 million in cash are scheduled to be released on Wednesday morning, the anniversary of the baffling heist.

Journalists have been invited to a media conference at 8:30 a.m. in Brampton where Peel police Chief Nishan Duraiappah is expected to be joined by Peel Detective Sergeant Mike Mavity, and ATF Special Agent-in-charge Eric Degree. The shock Toronto airport heist of $20 million in gold bars — weighing 400.19 kilograms — along with US$2 million in cash was as easy as walking into Air Canada’s cargo facility, showing a false waybill, and leaving with the enormous haul, according to a lawsuit filed in court .

It was gone 42 minutes after it was unloaded from a plane arriving from Switzerland and transferred to a supposedly secure warehouse on the periphery of Toronto’s Pearson airport, according to the statement of claim filed in October by Brink’s, the U.s-based security firm who was moving the container of gold and cash via Air Canada.

The container was unloaded directly from an Air Canada jet arriving from Switzerland onto a Brink’s security truck while on the airport tarmac and taken to an Air Canada cargo holding facility on the other side of the airport, known as Cargo West.