Man arrested and charged in 2023 Toronto Pearson gold theft

A man identified in the April 2023 theft of gold from Toronto Pearson International Airport was arrested and charged on Monday, Peel Regional Police said. Arsalan Chaudhary, 43, was taken into custody at Pearson after arriving on a flight from Dubai and charged with theft and other offences in the case that involved more than 20 million Canadian dollars in gold bars (about $14.4 million), the police said.

The shipment arrived on April 17, 2023, aboard an Air Canada flight from Zurich and was moved into a secure cargo holding facility, the police said. Officers say roughly 400 kilograms of 99.99 percent pure gold and about 2.5 million Canadian dollars in foreign currency disappeared after a man presenting a duplicate waybill — a copy of one used a day earlier for a seafood shipment — was allowed to remove the container; the next morning, after an armored truck arrived with the authentic waybill, police were called.

Brink’s, the security company hired to move the goods from Switzerland, said in a lawsuit the gold was intended for a Toronto-based bank and the cash for a Vancouver-based currency exchange. Peel police said in April 2024 they believed the gold bars had been melted down. Peel police have identified 10 people in connection with the theft; all are either the subject of warrants or have been charged, the force said, and the group includes an Air Canada employee and a Canadian man arrested in the United States on illegal firearms trafficking allegations.

Key Topics

World, Arsalan Chaudhary, Toronto Pearson Airport, Peel Regional Police, Air Canada, Brink's