The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday raided the house of and questioned Simran Preet Panesar, a 32-year-old former Air Canada manager, who is facing a Canada-wide warrant for his alleged role in the April 2023 gold robbery at the North American nation’s Toronto Pearson International Airport.
An ED team arrived at Simran Preet Panesar’s residence at Sector 79 in Punjab’s Mohali on Friday morning.
“Our teams are in the process of questioning him,” a senior ED officer said.
The Indian Express earlier reported about Panesar living on the outskirts of Chandigarh.
The ED, the central agency which probes financial crimes, has, in a rare instance of investigating a crime beyond India’s territorial boundaries, has launched a money-laundering probe into the case as the accused is now in India.
The idea, officers aware of the matter said, is to investigate if the gold or its proceeds made their way to the country.
Toronto Pearson gold heist
On April 17, 2023, fake paperwork was used to steal an air cargo container carrying gold bars, from a secure storage facility at the Toronto Pearson International Airport.
The stolen cargo contained 6,600 bars of .9999 pure gold weighing 400 kg, valued at over 20 million Canadian Dollars (CAD), and foreign currency worth 2.5 million CAD. The gold and currency had arrived on an Air Canada flight from Zurich, Switzerland, in Toronto, and were destined for a bank in Canada’s largest city.
Shortly after the flight landed, the cargo was offloaded and transported to a separate location on airport property. However, a day later, it was reported ‘missing’ to the police.
The Peel Regional Police (PRP), which described the theft as the ‘biggest gold heist in Canada ever,’ charged nine, including Simran Preet Panesar, in April 2024, and issued an arrest warrant against him. Panesar and another accused, Parampal Sidhu, lived in Brampton, and worked at Toronto Pearson’s warehouse facility.
