Fugitive arrested for $20 million gold heist at Toronto airport

One of the fugitives wanted for the $20 million Toronto gold heist was arrested at the same airport from where the gold was stolen a year ago, after he stepped off a plane arriving from India.

Archit Grover, 36, from Brampton, Ont., was arrested Monday at Pearson International Airport as he returned to Canada. He is charged with theft over $5,000 and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.

Archit Grover’s arrest represents a significant development in the ongoing investigation into the massive gold heist, highlighting the authorities’ determination to track down all individuals involved in the crime.

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Grover’s arrest leaves just two known fugitives for the gold heist at large after the arrest of five men in Canada and one man in the United States.

The arrests follow a year after a shipping container filled with 6,600 variously sized bars of almost pure gold, weighing 400.19 kilograms, was stolen from an Air Canada cargo facility shortly after arriving on a flight to Toronto from Zurich, Switzerland, on April 17, 2023.

The gold was valued at the time at more than $20 million. The shipping container also contained foreign currency worth about $2.5 million. The contents were being delivered by Brink’s on behalf of two clients.

Grover is also wanted in the United States where he was indicted alongside the man accused of being the driver who made off with the gold for firearms trafficking. Police earlier alleged that some of the profit from the gold job was used to fund a cross-border gun running operation.

That driver, Durante King-Mclean, 25, also from Brampton, was arrested a month after the gold heist in Pennsylvania, allegedly caught driving a car with 65 handguns in the trunk heading for Canada. He remains in custody there pending trial.

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While Grover is wanted in the U.S. for the gun plot, King-Mclean is wanted in Canada for the gold job.

Police allege the heist was an inside job, with the assistance of Air Canada employees at the cargo warehouse. Two Air Canada employees at the time are named as suspects.

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One was arrested and suspended from his job: Parmpal Sidhu, 54, of Brampton. The other is one of the wanted men: Simran Preet Panesar, a 31-year-old man from Brampton. He quit his job as a manager at the cargo warehouse a few months after the heist and disappeared. He is wanted for theft over $5,000 and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.

The other wanted man is Arsalan Chaudhary, a 42-year-old man of no fixed address. He is wanted for theft over $5,000, conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, and possession of property obtained by crime.

Peel Regional Police said the two wanted men should get a lawyer and turn themselves into police.

Grover was held for a bail hearing and attended the Ontario Court of Justice in Brampton.

Peel police said investigators, working with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which is handling the gun running probe, continues to “make significant progress in the investigation.”

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