Hundreds of stolen vehicles valued at roughly $25 million bound for the Middle East and West Africa were recovered in a cross-agency investigation into organized auto theft.
Police announced Wednesday the dismantling of a criminal organization accused of shipping stolen vehicles from Ontario to overseas destinations. Twenty individuals have been arrested and charged with a total of 134 offences in the spanning operation, which saw York Regional Police collaborating to track vehicles and their illegal exportation through freight forwarding companies.
"Auto theft fuels organized criminal networks and threatens the safety of our communities, impacting families, businesses and neighbourhoods across Ontario," said OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique in a news release. "Today we have sent a clear message: Ontario will not be a source for criminal profit."
Project Chickadee, led by the Ontario Provincial Police and the Canada Border Services Agency, launched in August 2023 when the Provincial Auto Theft and Towing (PATT) Team team recovered four stolen vehicles in the Greater Toronto Area.
Police said they found evidence of a criminal network using freight forwarding companies and drivers, registered businesses, and fraudulent documentation to transport stolen vehicles. They came to believe the criminal organization orchestrating the vehicles' movement had international reach and association to transnational organized crime groups.
To halt the shipment of stolen vehicles, police and border agents inspected shipping containers in transit and at the ports of Montréal, Vancouver and Halifax. Financial intelligence disclosures were also essential to the investigation's success, OPP said.
Police executed a number of search warrants in the probe. The first round took place Oct. 16 in Toronto, Vaughan, Woodbridge and Etobicoke and resulted in the seizure of $30,000 in Canadian currency, one vehicle with an illegally altered vehicle identification number, two other vehicles, key programmers and various Ontario plates. Officers arrested one individual, who was charged with four auto theft-related offences, and apprehended two others who fled from police.
Another round came on Nov. 27 across 23 residential industrial locations in the GTA and one in Saint-Eustache, Québec.
All in all, police seized or recovered 306 stolen vehicles, three firearms, more than $190,000 in Canadian currency, more than $32,000 in U.S. currency, two forklifts, two tractor-trailer cabs, vehicle shipping information, provincial license plates and various electronic devices.
The 20 accused individuals are based across the GTA. Most are scheduled to appear before the Ontario Court of Justice in Toronto Jan. 7, while two individuals from Bradford already had their first hearings at the Ontario Court of Justice in Newmarket Nov. 24.