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Prosecutors allege an Air Canada employee provided a doctored waybill that allowed another man to pick up more than $22 million in gold and currency from a Toronto Pearson airport cargo bay in what investigators have called one of the largest gold heists in Canadian history.
Parmpal Sidhu was one of the “inside men” with the knowledge and access to help carry out the 2023 heist, Crown attorney Jelena Vlacic told a Brampton, Ont., court Monday as Sidhu’s trial began.
The trial is expected to hear evidence that the fraudulent air waybill was printed on site the day before the operation using Sidhu’s profile, and the Crown alleges he was the one who printed it, Vlacic said in her opening statement.
The driver who picked up the gold had an air waybill for a seafood shipment, but the document was altered with a handwritten number for the gold shipment, she said.
The Crown alleges the driver is Durante King-Mclean, an Ontario man who U.S. authorities say fled south shortly after the heist. He was arrested in Pennsylvania in September 2023 and has since pleaded guilty to conspiring to traffic firearms, U.S. officials said.
“Whoever provided this air waybill to Mr. Durante King-Mclean … knew exactly what he needed to have and what needed to be changed,” Vlacic said.
Sidhu pleaded not guilty Monday to theft over $5,000 and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.
Crown witnesses provide testimony
The Crown’s first witness, Peel regional police Const. Clayton Asano, testified Monday about his role in investigating how the air waybill made its way through the cargo facility.
Court watched surveillance video from the cargo facility that showed a white truck back into the loading bay and the driver, dressed in reflective gear and a face covering, go inside and interact with Air Canada staff.
The driver handed over documents including the waybill and eventually an employee with a forklift came with the shipment and helped load it onto the truck. The truck then drove away, with the entire process playing out within an hour, court heard.
Prosecutors said the identity of the driver is not in dispute in this trial.
During cross-examination, Sidhu’s lawyers asked Asano whether anyone else had access to their client’s computer or if any witnesses placed him at the terminal at the time. The officer said he didn’t know as he was not involved in every part of the investigation.
He was also asked whether handwriting analysis was conducted on the waybill. Asano said no, but clarified under re-examination by the Crown that such an analysis had been considered and ruled out because there wasn’t enough writing on the waybill or enough of a sample to compare it to.
A woman who was Air Canada’s cargo operations manager at the time of the heist is now on the stand.
WATCH | CBC’s the fifth estate takes deep dive into Pearson gold heist:
Inside job: Airport gold heist
It was a sensational heist — $20 million in gold stolen from Canada’s busiest airport. On a chase that spans the globe — from India to Dubai to rural Pennsylvania, we make surprising discoveries about the gold, guns and the suspects still at large.Heist stole over $20M in gold from Pearson
The trial comes soon after prosecutors dropped the charges against two other men accused in the case.
Last month, the Crown withdrew charges against Ali Raza, a jeweller who had been accused of knowingly receiving some of the stolen gold, and Amit Jalota.
Meanwhile, a man who admitted his role in the heist was sentenced this spring to four years in prison.
Arsalan Chaudhary, who was arrested earlier in the year as he flew back from Dubai, pleaded guilty to theft over $5,000 and was given 40 years to pay back $22 million in restitution.
Peel regional police have said 6,600 gold bars weighing more than 400 kilograms were stolen from Pearson on April 17, 2023, and had a value of more than $20 million.
WATCH | Pearson gold heist trial begins:
$20M in gold stolen from Canada’s busiest airport. Now, the trial begins
A man accused in what investigators have called one of the largest gold heists in Canadian history has pleaded not guilty to two charges as his trial begins in Brampton, Ont. CBC’s Meagan Fitzpatrick has the latest details.
The stolen gold and foreign currency were ordered from a refinery in Zurich, Switzerland, and were transported in the hull of an Air Canada flight to Toronto, police said two years ago as they released more details of the investigation dubbed Project 24K.
The gold and currency were then offloaded and brought to an Air Canada cargo facility at the airport, police said.
Later that day, a suspect presented a fraudulent airway bill to warehouse employees, who loaded the shipment onto his five-tonne truck, police alleged.
Another man accused in the case, Archit Grover, is expected to face trial later this fall.