Police recover 598 stolen vehicles at Montreal port

• Authorities say they prevented nearly 600 stolen vehicles from being exported overseas after searching 390 shipping containers at the Port of Montreal.

Around three-quarters of the 598 seized vehicles, with an estimated value of $34.5 million, were stolen in Ontario, the Ontario Provincial Police said. OPP deputy commissioner Marty Kearns told reporters in Montreal on Wednesday that investigations by police in Ontario led them to believe that a large percentage of stolen vehicles in that province “were destined for illegal export via the Port of Montreal.” As a result, he said, police and federal agencies in Quebec and Ontario launched Project Vector.

“As our intelligence indicated, the vast majority of recovered stolen vehicles, more than 430, were taken from the Greater Toronto Area,” Kearns said.

Thieves target relatively new vehicles, including high-end pickup trucks and SUVS, which are then exported to markets in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and South America, he said.

No arrests have yet been made as part of the threeand-a-half month operation.

Kearns said the operation has taken millions of dollars away from organized crime, and sent a message “that we are here, we are active.”

“We’re not done … we anticipate arrests and charges in the near future.”

Kearns said Project Vector is the latest in a series of police operations targeting vehicle thefts. In March, a provincial task force in Ontario arrested seven people, who face 34 charges, and recovered 18 cars.

Another 34 people alleged to have committed offences related to vehicle theft were arrested in Quebec.