Eight people who police say are part of a highly sophisticated criminal organization involved in the theft of luxury vehicles for sale outside Canada have been arrested in Toronto, York and Niagara regions.
The arrests were made early Thursday morning when police executed nine warrants in an operation targeting break-and-enters in affluent neighbourhoods for the purpose of stealing keys to high-end vehicles.
Speaking at a news conference at police headquarters, Toronto police Chief Bill Blair told reporters that 23 vehicles such as Bentleys, Aston Martins, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW SUVs at an estimated value of $2.3 million have been recovered so far. Four of them were located as they arrived in Europe.
“There is a criminal enterprise that has been involved in the theft of very high-end vehicles and the shipment of those vehicles out of the country, principally to eastern Europe and other parts of the world where those vehicles are sold for an extraordinary profit,” said Blair.
The chief explained that car keys have become valuable items with the new immobilizer technology used by many new vehicle manufacturers. The technology typically involves the use of an electronic chip embedded into the key which makes the key a necessity to gain access to a vehicle, whereas in the past, car thieves would be able to rip out certain wires to start up a car.
Supt. Scott Gilbert, one of the investigators from 53 Division, said this morning’s police raids were dubbed Project Yellowbird.
“The standard break-and-enter we’ve been dealing with has been two or three individuals pulling up into one of our residential areas driving a high-end vehicle themselves,” said Gilbert. “So, they blend into Forest Hill, Rosedale, wherever they happen to be.”
After the first report of the stolen yellow Porsche in 32 Division, similar thefts were reported in divisions 53 and 22. From there, other police units from Halton, Peel and Niagara regions got involved in the investigation as did the Canada Border Services Agency and law enforcement agencies in other countries.
The thefts typically took place during daylight hours, said Gilbert, when there were clear signs of unoccupied residences such as mail not being picked up,
This morning’s warrants were executed at residences, a business, public storage lockers and a cargo unit, said Gilbert.
The yellow Porsche was eventually found in Lithuania. Two other vehicles were located in Germany and they are on their way back to Canada.
Police said that along with the stolen vehicles, they also uncovered a significant amount of other stolen property including jewelry and designer accessories. The names of those arrested, the charges that are being laid and the exact value of items seized are expected to be released Friday once police complete the process of cataloguing the seized items.
This is the first time that charges related to participating in a criminal enterprise may be laid along with break-and-enter charges, said Blair.
One more suspect, believed to be a 37-year-old male, is still outstanding.
The police chief added that he believes more stolen vehicles will be uncovered as the investigation continues and he expects their sum value could be as high as “tens of millions of dollars.”
There are approximately 8,000 break-and-enters in Toronto and 24,000 vehicles reported stolen annually.
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