{"id":594433,"date":"2026-04-10T09:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T09:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/594433\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T09:00:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T09:00:18","slug":"pearson-gold-heist-organizer-handed-4-year-prison-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/594433\/","title":{"rendered":"Pearson gold heist organizer handed 4-year prison sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"

A main organizer of what authorities have described as has been sentenced to four years in prison.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

, 44, has also been ordered to repay $22 million \u2013 a restitution order that will be in place for 40 years \u2013 for his involvement in the April 2023 theft at Toronto Pearson International Airport.<\/p>\n

Ontario Court Justice Shannon McPherson delivered her sentence in a Brampton, Ont. courtroom Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Chaudhary, who was arrested this January at Pearson after arriving on a flight from Dubai, was charged with theft over $5,000, two counts of possession of property obtained by crime and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.<\/p>\n

The 2023 heist, which made international headlines<\/a>\u00a0at the time, involved 6,600 gold bars valued at more than $20 million stolen from Pearson; cash valued at $2.5 million was also taken.<\/p>\n

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The gold and currency were ordered from a refinery in Zurich, Switzerland, and were transported in a container through an Air Canada flight that landed in Toronto.<\/p>\n

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That flight landed three years ago on April 17, 2023, at 3:56 p.m. The cargo was then offloaded from the plane to an Air Canada cargo facility at 6:32 p.m.<\/p>\n

Police alleged a suspect arrived at the facility with a \u201cfraudulent airway bill\u201d and gave it to an attendant.<\/p>\n

A short time later, a forklift arrived with a container of gold and foreign currency, which was loaded into the rear of the suspect\u2019s truck.<\/p>\n

At around 9:30 p.m., Brink\u2019s Canada employees went to the Air Canada cargo site to pick up the shipment of gold and currency. Police were contacted the following day and an investigation launched.<\/p>\n

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Video surveillance obtained by officers showed the truck drove west into Halton Region to north of Milton, Ont. That region is more rural, and eventually the truck was lost.<\/p>\n

On April 17, 2024,\u00a0police announced 37 search warrants<\/a>\u00a0were issued along with 70 production orders; officers seized $430,000 in Canadian currency during the search warrants.<\/p>\n

Also seized were six crudely made gold bracelets resembling bangles that were sent off for expert examination. They were pure gold and the total value was more than $89,000.<\/p>\n

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In addition, officers seized smelting pots, casts and molds. The truck allegedly used to steal the gold and cash was also seized by police.<\/p>\n

To date, nine individuals have been charged or are wanted, and more than 21 charges have been laid.<\/p>\n

The investigation into the theft remains ongoing.<\/p>\n

Anyone with information is asked to contact police.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A main organizer of what authorities have described as has been sentenced to four years in prison. ,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,2169,43,44,35244,225868,35243,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-594433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-ontario-crime","13":"tag-pearson-gold-heist","14":"tag-peel-regional-police","15":"tag-top-news","16":"tag-top-stories","17":"tag-topnews","18":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}