More than 40 vehicles stolen from the greater Toronto area were found last week in shipping containers in Italy, thanks to efforts from the York Regional Financial Crimes Unit, Canada’s Border Services Agency (CBSA) and Italian police.
The CBSA contacted the York Regional Financial Crimes Unit back in April of this year, in regards to an ongoing fraud investigation. The former had flagged the export of a 2018 Audi Q7 as suspicious, a car that coincidentally was also under investigation by said Financial Crimes Unit.
This led to a number of other vehicles being discovered, many of them heading overseas. Among the cars and SUV recovered were a BMW M6 Convertible, a Mercedes-AMG GLC 43, and an unspecified number of Jaguar, Lexus, Land Rover, Honda, Hyundai and Toyota models.
Authorities then flagged these transports and investigators contacted law offices in Italy, where shipping containers carrying the vehicles were on stopovers – in the port of Salerno and Tauro. Police said that their final destination was supposed to be Libya and Turkey.
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Once all the previously-mentioned law enforcement agencies got involved, 30 of the 40 cars were seized directly in those Italian ports (their total value being $1.5 million), with the remaining 10 (total of $300,000) seized by the CBSA before departing Canada.
Meanwhile, investigators with the Financial Crimes Unit executed a search warrant at the Toronto offices of RS Royal Services, where they recovered further evidence in the case, and additional vehicles are now being investigated.
As for the cars that have already been recovered, the goal here is for them to be returned to their lawful owners, once the paperwork is finished, of course.
Since this is an ongoing investigation, if you have any information regarding the case, you should contact the York Regional Police Financial Crimes Unit at 1-866-876-5423, ext. 6612, or call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-tips. You can also leave an anonymous tip online here.
