Police officers open the back of the truck used in the theft of some 400 kg of gold and almost US$2-million in cash stolen from Toronto Pearson International Airport a year ago, at a news conference in Brampton, Ont. on April 17.Carlos Osorio/Reuters
Investigators have made another arrest in connection with the $22.5-million gold-for-guns theft at Toronto Pearson International Airport last year.
Jalisa Edwards of Fort Lauderdale was arrested in Florida on Thursday and charged with aiding a Canadian man who is accused of buying guns in the U.S. to smuggle into Canada using the profits from the stolen Air Canada shipment of 400 kilograms of gold.
That man, Durante King-Mclean of Brampton, Ont., is in U.S. custody on international firearms trafficking charges, and faces charges in Canada related to the gold heist.
Peel Regional Police announced on Wednesday they had arrested or issued warrants for Mr. King-Mclean and eight others for the theft of the gold. The ring allegedly stole a container holding 6,600 gold bars and $2.5-million in cash from an Air Canada warehouse at the airport shortly after it was flown in from Zurich on April 17, 2023.
Police say the alleged inside job was Canada’s biggest gold theft.
Investigators allege two Air Canada employees, a jewellery store owner and the others conspired to steal the gold, melt it down and use the profits to buy guns in the U.S. to smuggle into Canada. Mr. King-Mclean, 25, allegedly drove the truck that carried off the gold, and travelled illegally to the U.S. shortly after to buy guns with the proceeds, Detective Mike Mavity of Peel police told reporters on Wednesday.
Peel police said they seized six gold bracelets worth a total of $90,000, $434,000 in cash and smelting equipment. But almost all the gold is missing.
Ms. Edwards, 25, was charged with being an accessory after the fact in the U.S. weapons trafficking case and released. She is scheduled to appear in a Pennsylvania court on Monday, said Dawn Clark, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice in Harrisburg, Penn.
According to a grand jury indictment from U.S. District Court, Ms. Edwards held several phone conversations with Mr. King-Mclean and others, some of whom have been charged in Canada and the U.S. in connection with the case.
She also alerted other members of the alleged ring that Mr. King-Mclean had been arrested in Pennsylvania on his way to Canada with 65 illegal guns in the trunk of a rented car in September, the grand jury found. Mr. King-Mclean’s arrest happened after he fled on foot during a traffic stop. The grand jury also found she removed evidence from the Fort Lauderdale rental at which Mr. King-Mclean stayed, and arranged payment for his rented car.
“In a text message conversation with Jalisa Edwards … King-Mclean talked about acquiring ‘45 sticks’ that month,” the indictment reads. She “expressed concern to King-Mclean before he left Florida about him ‘getting pulled.’”
Also charged in Pennsylvania in the gun-trafficking conspiracy are two Brampton men, Prasath Paramalingam, 34, and Archit Grover, 36. Mr. Paramalingam has been charged and released by Peel police with being an accessory after the fact in connection to the Pearson theft. Mr. Grover is a fugitive, Ms. Clark said by phone, and is wanted in Canada and the U.S.
Peel police have also issued warrants for the arrests of former Air Canada employee Simran Preet Panesar of Brampton and Arsalan Chaudhary of Mississauga.
Eric Atkins