Police lay 150 charges in auto theft probe
GTA undercover investigation began by targeting gun, cocaine traffickers before pivoting to stolen vehicle ring
An undercover Toronto police operation targeting gun and cocaine traffickers morphed into the latest attempt at a crackdown on an international auto theft ring that funds terrorism, police said.
The comments came on Wednesday as Toronto police and the insurance industry-run Équité Association announced the results of the operation dubbed Project Paranoid.
The original police operation called Project Spectre was launched in April 2023 as an undercover drug and gun-trafficking investigation.
Undercover officers managed to penetrate a terrorist group and purchase cocaine and handguns, said Staff Supt. Pauline Gray said.
Police said that in August 2023, information gathered during the first operation led to the launch of Project Paranoid, which pivoted the investigation into international auto sales and terrorist finances.
Police said the auto theft group funded terrorism, but they did not name any specific organizations or provide further details at the press conference.
Supt. Steve Watts of the Organized Crime Enforcement Unit praised the work of the undercover officers who got the project going with the purchase of handguns and cocaine.
“We’re very good at it,” Watts said. “It’s extremely dangerous.”
The two projects resulted in the arrests of seven people who face 150 charges.
Six are Canadian citizens, police said, adding that six of the seven have been freed on bail.
Six high-end Glock and Sig Sauer handguns that were purchased by undercover officers were on display at a press conference at the Toronto Police College.
Forty-eight stolen vehicles were seized, including 20 with a value of $1 million from a shipper in Burlington and 20 with a value of $2 million were intercepted in Toronto and Montreal, police said.
Toronto police said they were aided by the Canada Border Services Agency, Halton Region police and York Region police during the two operations.
A number of businesses in the GTA were identified during the investigation as locations that allegedly stored and sold stolen vehicles before they were shipped abroad through the Port of Montreal, or “revinned” and registered for resale in Ontario, said police.
“Revinning” is the modification of a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) to make a vehicle appear as though it’s not stolen.
A vehicle theft crime wave has plagued the city for months. Chief Myron Demkiw addressed the recent spike in auto thefts at a March 18 board meeting with some shocking statistics.
According to Toronto police data, more than 12,000 vehicles were stolen across the city last year, a figure that equates to a car theft every 40 minutes.
There have also been 68 carjackings so far in 2024, which is a 106 per cent increase compared to the same period last year.
The GTA has also recently seen a huge rise in home invasions and break-and-enters for the purpose of stealing a vehicle. These incidents rose 400 per cent in 2023 as compared to the year prior.
On March 20, Peel police hosted an auto theft summit that featured more than 150 representatives from law enforcement agencies from across the country, including leadership from all the GTHAbased police services, along with representatives from vehicle manufacturers, insurance, finance entities and vehicle dealerships.
In the 2024 provincial budget tabled by the finance minister on Tuesday, $49 million was earmarked to fight auto theft over three years. That investment will, in part, go toward the Ontario Provincial Police’s auto theft team and the province’s Major Auto Theft Prosecution Response team.
Police have called for a joint effort involving Ottawa, insurance companies and auto manufacturers to combat the auto theft crisis, Gray said.
“Auto theft is among the top three revenue generators for organized crime groups, and it is not an issue that police services can tackle alone,” Gray told the press conference.