On Friday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided the residence of Simran Preet Panesar, a 32-year-old former manager at Air Canada, in Sector 79, Mohali, Punjab. Panesar is facing a Canada-wide arrest warrant for his involvement in the gold heist at Toronto Pearson International Airport in April 2023. An ED team arrived early in the morning and began questioning him.
According to a senior ED officer, the investigation is ongoing, with the authorities questioning Panesar. The Indian Express had previously reported that Panesar resided on the outskirts of Chandigarh. The ED, which typically investigates financial crimes within India’s borders, has initiated a rare money-laundering probe in this case. The objective is to determine whether the stolen gold or any of its proceeds were transported to India.
The Toronto Pearson gold heist occurred on April 17, 2023, when fake documents were used to steal an air cargo container containing gold bars from a secure storage facility at the airport. The cargo, which had arrived on an Air Canada flight from Zurich, Switzerland, was meant for a bank in Toronto. The stolen shipment included 6,600 bars of 99.99% pure gold weighing a total of 400 kg, worth over 20 million Canadian Dollars (CAD), along with foreign currency valued at 2.5 million CAD.
Following the flight’s arrival, the cargo was offloaded and moved to a different location on the airport grounds. However, the next day, authorities reported the cargo as missing. The Peel Regional Police (PRP), which later dubbed the theft as the largest gold heist in Canadian history, charged nine individuals in connection with the crime, including Panesar. An arrest warrant was issued for him in April 2024. Panesar and another suspect, Parampal Sidhu, were both employed at the Toronto Pearson warehouse facility and had resided in Brampton. Despite the investigation, Canadian authorities have yet to recover the stolen gold, though 90,000 CAD has been retrieved by the PRP.
