Two years have passed since sweaty, visibly shaking Air Canada manager Simran Preet Panesar gave Peel Regional Police a tour of the site of Canada’s largest ever gold heist — a cargo facility outside Pearson International Airport.
The warehouse manager led investigators to the spot where a white truck pulled up on the afternoon of April 17, 2023, and a man stepped out to present a doctored document.
The document, for frozen seafood that had already been collected, was quickly approved.
The man from the truck then collected 6,600 gold bars — 99.9 per cent pure and so heavy that a forklift was needed to load them.
And then, he drove off with $24 million in gold and cash. It was last seen on security videos taken near Milton, somewhere north of a church.
A few months later, Panesar quit his job and moved out of his Brampton home, ahead of charges that he was a key inside planner of the sixth-largest gold theft in world history, according to the Gold Bullion Company, a British group that measures such things.
Panesar is now a fugitive wanted on a Canada-wide warrant on charges of theft over $5,000 and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.
Earlier this year, media in India reported that he has recently been questioned there about money laundering regarding the Pearson theft.
Panesar’s Canadian lawyer, Greg Lafontaine, declined to comment.
The people allegedly behind the heist
Other outstanding suspects in what police call Project 24K are former GTA residents Arsalan Chaudary and Prasath Paramalingam.
Five others from the GTA — including another former Air Canada worker and the owner of a GTA jewelry shop — have been charged with theft over $5,000 and freed on bail.
Simran Preet Panesar remains a fugitive.
Peel PoliceAnother suspect, Durante King-McLean, has been in a Pennsylvania jail for the past 20 months after being charged with attempting to smuggle 65 illegal guns into Canada in an allegedly related case.
King-McLean is believed by police to be the driver of the white truck that drove off from Pearson with the gold two years ago.
Authorities allege that at least some of the proceeds from the stolen gold were diverted to purchase illegal weapons in the U.S., which were intended to be sold on the black market in Canada.
Toronto Star reporter Peter Edwards breaks down the $24M Pearson gold heist in 2023. It was the stuff of a wild caper movie. After two years, here’s what we know about the fate of the accused – and the bullion. Listen to the full episode or subscribe to the Star at https://www.thestar.com/thismatters
King-McLean agreed earlier this month to cut a deal with American authorities on the gun-running charges, which could see him back in Canada in the not-so-distant future.
He originally faced the threat of 35 years in an American prison.
Now, if the proposed deal is approved by a judge on May 14, King-McLean faces a maximum of 15 years in custody and the prospect of serving his time in a Canadian cell, close to home.
Under the proposed deal, which has yet to be approved by a judge, King-McLean agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to traffic firearms in the U.S.
Durante King-McLean is accused by Peel police of driving away with $24-million in stolen gold and cash from Pearson airport on April 17, 2023.
Peel policeIn the proposed plea bargain, King-McLean states that he realizes he could be deported from the U.S. and that he was not mistreated earlier while living in Canada on grounds of race, religion, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, and has no fear of torture in Canada — all standard questions ahead of an extradition.
In the proposed deal, King-McLean also accepts that he will be permanently barred from the United States.
King-McLean originally pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to traffic in firearms; illegal alien in possession of a firearm; attempt to unlawfully export firearms; illegal possession of a machine gun; possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number; and possession of a stolen firearm.
A grand jury in Pennsylvania earlier heard that King-McLean and Paramalingam texted each other on the encrypted Threema platform on April 23, 2023 — less than a week after the Pearson heist — about how King-McLean could illegally enter the U.S. “to illegally secure and transport firearms back to Canada.”
King-McLean was arrested after a state trooper said he detected suspicious driving, leading him to pull over King-McLean’s rented Nissan shortly after midnight on Sept. 2, 2023. King-McLean tried to run to freedom when he got out of the rental, the officer reported.
Instead, King-McLean was arrested and 65 illegal guns were seized in the trunk of his vehicle, including two that were fully automatic, 11 that were stolen and one with an obliterated serial number, police say.
Meanwhile, Chaudhary, formerly of Mississauga, is believed by police to have fled for Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, which has no extradition treaty with Canada.
“The last information I had, which is quite dated, is that Arsalan Chaudhary was in Dubai,” Detective Sergeant Mike Mavity, major case manager for Project 24K, said in an email.
There has been plenty more drama — on the screen and in real life — since Panesar led police on their tour of the crime scene two years ago.
Untraceable, readily sold for cash — most of that gold is gone for good.
Exactly a year ago — on the heist’s one-year anniversary — Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown bubbled that it was almost out of an ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ movie or an episode of “CSI,” while Peel Regional Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah said it was worthy of a Netflix series.
A fictionalized account loosely based on the heist has already made it into an episode of “Law & Order, Toronto: Criminal Intent.”
In real life, only $89,000 of the stolen gold was ever recovered and police suspect the rest was melted down shortly after it was unloaded from the white truck.
The fact that pure gold can be endlessly melted and reshaped means criminals can sell it off in bits or large pieces that cannot be tracked.
“The chances of recovering it are virtually nil,” Donna Hawrelko, president of the Canadian Gemmological Association, told the Star last year. (Gold is “heaven for criminal groups who want to buy gold to launder cash,” added organized crime expert Anna Sergi.)
The only gold found so far was fashioned into crude bracelets.
Richard Lautens Toronto StarWhat’s next for the investigation?
The real-life investigation has spread to four countries now — India, Dubai and the U.S.
The gold heist story has gotten prominent play this year in the media in India, which has noted that Panesar fled to the Punjab, where he lives with his wife, a former Miss India Uganda, singer and actor who is not accused of taking part in the gold theft.
The Indian Express reported that one of its journalists met Panesar at his residence on the outskirts of Chandigarh in northern India, but the former GTA resident declined to speak “on record,” citing “legal reasons.” One of his neighbours reportedly told the Express they learned that “Preet Panesar was involved in some monetary dispute in Canada, but was told that it was over.”
On Feb. 21, 2025, four locations in the Punjab associated with Panesar were raided by India’s Enforcement Directorate, according to several Indian news outlets.
Panesar was then questioned — but not charged — under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
“Never could he have imagined that he could come under probe by an Indian agency for an alleged crime committed in Canada,” Mayank Kumar of Printline Media in India wrote on February 21, 2025.
Panesar “probably believed he had left his troubles behind” when he moved to India, Kumar noted.
Editor’s note — April 17, 2025
This article has been updated.
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