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Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) announced the recovery of over 300 stolen cars and the arrests of several individuals in relation to an auto theft investigation.
A joint news conference Wednesday revealed the latest details of an investigation that has led to 20 arrests, with a total of 134 charges, and recovered 306 stolen cars destined for countries in the Middle East and West Africa, including Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Lebanon.
The investigation began in August 2023 when police recovered four stolen vehicles and discovered a “sophisticated criminal network,” said OPP Det.-Insp. Scott Wade.
That criminal network included registered freight forwarding companies, who used fraudulent documents to facilitate the illegal export of stolen vehicles overseas, said Wade.
He said OPP and CBSA officers carried out a total of 27 search warrants in recent months across Ontario and Quebec. Officers also inspected shipping containers in transit and at ports in Montreal, Vancouver and Halifax before they left Canada.
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Wade said the accused individuals worked together to facilitate their criminal networks, but were not one cohesive group.
“While we’ve had incredible success recovering 306 vehicles, the investigation is far from over,” said Wade at the news conference.
In addition to the recovered cars, valued collectively at $25 million, Wade said police also seized three firearms, equipment to steal and alter vehicle identification numbers, over $190,000 in Canadian currency and over $32,000 US.
The surge in auto thefts over recent years has impacted community safety and fueled criminal networks in their illicit activities, said Trishann Pascal, executive director of the CBSA’s Greater Toronto Area Region
She said law enforcement at all levels have been “seized” with auto theft issues.
“This is exactly why we joined forces to investigate every aspect of how these organizations operate,” she said.
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CBSA officers participated in the execution of 23 of the search warrants and laid 22 charges against three individuals for offences under the Customs Act, said Abeid Morgan, CBSA acting director of intelligence and investigations.
He urged anyone with information related to suspicious activity at the border to contact the CBSA through its border watch line.
In July, an Équité Association report revealed an “optimistic” 19 per cent decrease in auto theft trends across Canada in the first half of this year, compared to the same time period in 2024.
But authors of the report said vigilance is still needed to keep numbers coming down. The Équité Association is a non-profit organization that tracks and reports insurance fraud and crime data.