1 [Music] minute said one minute yes yeah one minute minut 30 seconds 10 five okay good morning and welcome to Tron Police Headquarters today we’re going to be providing the results of project poacher we have inspector Heather Nichols and and detective Dan crowling from 53 that are going to speak on the uh stats from this project inspector good morning everybody and thank you for joining us I’m pleased to be here today on behalf of the Toronto Police Service and 53 division to announce the results of project poacher and auto theft investigation in Jan 2024 the 53 division major crime unit led by detective Dan cring initiated project poacher their work has led to four arrests 28 charges laid and over 100 stolen vehicles linked to the accused worth approximately $9.5 million I’ll now turn it over to detective kaying who will provide the details of this scheme and the immense efforts behind this five-month investigation I want to thank him and the 53 division major crime unit for their Relentless work in dismantling this organization which was contributing to the ongoing auto theft issue in our city and ultimately putting our communities at risk detective Kay thank you inspector Nichols uh so the purpose of project pure was to identify and arrest members of a suspected auto theft group responsible for reving stolen motor vehicles within the city of Toronto as the project progressed we learned that the suspects were conspiring with a former Service Ontario member um uh this former employee was allegedly being paid by members of this group to provide clean vehicle documents and plates in order to disguise stolen Motor Vehicles making them appear legitimate to unsuspecting buyers it’s alleged that the suspects would provide the former employee with document with vehicle identification numbers from vehicles that had previously been sold and exported out of the country in exchange for money the former employee would then create new legitimate looking Vehicle registrations and license plate for the these clean vins these falsified documents were then used to rev the stolen vehicles effectively disguising them and making them appear legitimate the stolen vehicles now with new identities were sold to unsuspecting buyers or used in other criminal activities throughout the city some Vehicles were even registered to non-existent or deceased individuals in an effort to confuse their detection by law enforcement in May of this year we executed seven criminal code search warrants uh throughout the city of Toronto and the GTA on residences commercial garages and vehicles in total members of this group are responsible for ring over 100 stolen vehicles to date worth approximately 9.5 million throughout the investigation from that 100 we have recovered so far 21 stolen R luxury Vehicles valued between $ 1.5 $1.8 million also want to thank the members at 53 division major crime unit for their dedication and this hard work in this complex investigation their commitment has been crucial in addressing these crimes and because of their efforts we continue to work to enhance the safety of our communities thank you uh I’ll now take any questions who flighted this was it a service onario so this investigation came to light um during a previous investigation where search war was executed at Service Ontario from Project Safari um when reviewing documents seized from service onario we came across us certain patterns and names that led us towards this group of individuals are there any El saving suspects uh in this investigation no we don’t not believe there’s any upstanding suspects and once the vehicles were rided where were they ding for are we talking overseas no so the the purpose of rebinning is essentially to create a domestic market for stolen vehicles so rather than exporting them out internationally now these vehicles can be sold for Value within the the the province or country were they being some privately you know use car lots how was that work uh variety of methods um mostly online uh so through various online marketplaces they’ be sold to unsuspecting buyers and were all the vehicles located that you have recovered th far were they located in the Toronto area or yes so the ones that we’ve located so far have all been within the GTA so about within an hour drive of a city center can you I’m not sure if you can comment on uh what we’ve seen this in terms of Auto in the city told uh I don’t have any with me unfortunately yet questions a is it just the one service on CH employee part of this ring or we suspect maybe others are because it sounds pretty sophisticated um the actions during this investigation was just this one former employee yes are the things that can look out for when it comes to re absolutely so um we recommend that anyone purchasing a used vehicle uh obtain a comprehensive vehicle history report VI through Carfax or some other reputable company um in looking at these inconsistencies will appear that are registered that aren’t always made aware to buyers if they haven’t gone through this effort um things to look out for would be sudden color changes of a new vehicle those are just things that wouldn’t normally occur um if the vehicle has indication that it was previously exported but is now for sale within Canada as well that’s very uncommon um so by getting the comprehensive history of a used vehicle you can make informed choices to mitigate the risk of buying one of these rebent vehicles after the vehicle was rebent and then sold can you talk about what kind of help with the success of tracking down these vehicles sorry sorry once the process was done by the alleged criminals and able to re the vehicles can you talk from the policing perspective what led to the success in identifying get some of these so bearing in mind that this is still before the courts but essentially the process would be we would utilize many of the same tools that are available to the public to detect uh these vehicles so from the document seized we’re able to expand our knowledge of the sort of scope of their operation and from there we’re able to start picking off these vehicles where they were does this speak to any sort of failure or vulnerability in service Ontario’s internal systems um I don’t think we can really draw that conclusion from from this investigation uh the actions of this former employee were were very much his own um after his arrest during project Safari uh we did notice a trend with this crew that their operations did get harder and that was because there were other service center employees when they detected the fraud flagging the fraud so I don’t know if you can speak to maybe the customer who bought these unknown stol vehicles or whatever what what you know what happens to them can say unfortunately there’s little recourse for them like they can pursue civil matters down the road against you know the accused if that’s their course of action however um I’ll speak about the risks for them being in possession of one of these vehicles um essentially you can’t ensure a stolen vehicle so by having possession of a r stolen vehicle were someone to get into a collision or or or be pulled over by the police like they’re liable for whatever activity is done with that vehicle so a major Collision they’re they’re going to be holding that unfortunately as a result of having a stolen vehicle in possession not even being aware of exactly okay one more question where would they um where would they get the VIN numbers from and how people protect their VIN numbers on their cars so parts of that are ongoing but from what we’ve gleamed throughout this investigation is these were taken from vehicles that have been legitimately exported out of Canada so we’re no longer within the Canadian Market thank you thank you okay thank you all for coming that concludes today’s media conference anyone want images of the p thank you okay byee [Music]
Toronto police will provide details on Friday about a major auto theft and re-vinning investigation.
Insp. Heather Nicols and Det. Daniel Kraehling will discuss the investigation, dubbed “Project Poacher,” at a news conference at Toronto police headquarters.
Toronto has experienced a significant increase in auto thefts, with over 12,000 vehicles stolen in 2023. This translates to an alarming average of 34 vehicles stolen daily, or one vehicle every 40 minutes.
According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, Toronto has topped the list of costliest cities in Ontario for auto theft claims, experiencing a 561 per cent increase in costs over the past five years.
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Let me guess Patel and the gang are at it again ?