'How money becomes guns': Robbery spotlights illegal gun trade in US and Canada

Arrests following a 'sensational' gold robbery shed light on the illegal gun trade between the US and Canada.

A year ago, thousands of gold bars worth CAD 20 million ($14.5 million, £11.6 million) were stolen from Toronto's airport in Canada.

Police later said the money was sold as cash to buy guns in the United States.

Officials say the suspects were planning to smuggle guns into Canada, which has strict gun laws, and sell them on the black market.

“This is not just about money,” said Peel Regional Police Chief Nando Iannicka, who is responsible for arresting the nine suspects allegedly involved in the robbery.

“This is a story about how money becomes guns.”

Illegal gun smuggling from the United States has long been a concern for Canadian police, where most firearms except shotguns and rifles are restricted or banned.

Bear rights are enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, making firearms readily available and making gun ownership a difficult political topic in the United States.

But it's also created a lucrative illegal business for smugglers to bring guns purchased in the U.S. into Canada, said Police Chief Bill Fordy, who sits on the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police's Firearms Special Purposes Committee.

Toronto Police Inspector Norman Proctor said at a news conference last year that a gun purchased for $500 in the United States “can easily be sold in Canada for up to $5,000.”

The issue came to the fore after Canada introduced stricter gun laws several years ago following the country's deadliest mass shooting in Nova Scotia in 2020, which killed 22 people. This law included a ban on “assault-style weapons.”

Some questioned the effectiveness of the ban after it was determined that the gunman had obtained the guns illegally, with three being smuggled across the U.S. border from Houlton, Maine.

As these U.S.-made guns cross the border into Canada, police say they are frequently distributed across the United States and used in violent crimes such as robberies, carjackings and murders.

Chief Fordy told the BBC that in 2023, 90 per cent of handguns recovered after violent crimes in Ontario, Canada's most populous province, were traced back to the United States.

“Through our tracking and analysis, we found that the top states (from which guns were sourced) were Ohio, Texas, Florida, and Georgia, in that order,” Chief Fordy said.

Some were stolen, while others were purchased through straw purchasers (individuals who purchase guns for people who are not authorized to own them).

“Sometimes it's bought in bulk and sold here on the street and we get a pretty good return on investment,” Chief Fordy said.

Police say last year's gold heist from Toronto Pearson International Airport was the largest in North American history.

Peel Regional Police Chief Nishan Duraiappar called the incident “sensational” and “worthy of a Netflix series.”

The incident involved the theft of 400 kg (880 pounds) of gold and cash using fake shipping documents from a cargo facility on airport grounds just 42 minutes after being offloaded from an Air Canada flight arriving from Switzerland. It involved a complicated method of being defrauded.

The valuables were then loaded onto a large white cargo truck and taken away.

In announcing the arrest in the case, police said the robbery was carried out with the assistance of two Air Canada employees. These airline employees are now charged with theft over $5,000 and conspiracy to commit an indictable crime.

Police later discovered that some of the gold was made into bracelets and then sold for cash.

Additional layers to the scheme were revealed in September with the arrest of Durante King-McLean, 25, from Ontario, who was stopped by police in Pennsylvania.

Authorities found dozens of guns from Florida and Georgia in King-McLean's possession, and police say King-McLean, who was driving the getaway truck, entered the U.S. illegally. .

Chief Fordey told the BBC that the scheme, from start to finish, showed how sophisticated firearms smuggling operations had become.

“We can see that an organized criminal enterprise is involved,” he said.

The number of guns used in Canadian crimes that can be traced to the U.S. has increased over the past decade, and U.S. and Canadian police officers must increasingly work together to stop these guns from entering the country. He added that there is.

Mr. King-McLean is currently in U.S. custody and is facing charges in both countries.