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A 43-year-old man has been sentenced to four years in prison in connection to the multi-million-dollar gold heist at Pearson airport in 2023.
Arsalan Chaudhary was sentenced on Wednesday at a Brampton courthouse, said his lawyer Harval Bassi to CBC News Thursday.
Peel police arrested Chaudhary in January after he flew to Toronto from Dubai. He was charged with theft over $5,000, two counts of possession of property obtained by crime and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.
At the time, Peel police Insp. Mike Mavity told CBC News that Chaudhary had arranged with his lawyers to turn himself in upon arrival in Canada, but it wasn’t clear why he had chosen to surrender.
On Wednesday, Judge Shannon McPherson of the Ontario Court of Justice sentenced Chaudhary to four years in prison minus 174 days for time already served during pre-trial custody.
WATCH | Details behind Chaudhary’s arrest in January:
New charges laid in Toronto airport gold heist investigation
Peel police say they’ve made another arrest in connection with the 2023 gold heist at Toronto’s Pearson airport, the largest gold heist in Canadian history. Police said they arrested a 43-year-old man traveling to Toronto from Dubai on Monday.
While Chaudhary actually spent 87 days in pre-trial custody, the judge added some time due to harsh conditions at the Maplehurst Correctional Complex, said Bassi.
He said the judge also handed down a restitution order of 40 years due to the $22 million that was stolen.
Bassi said the crown prosecutors had requested Chaudhary to face seven years in prison.
Chaudhary planned heist, sold gold: Crown documents
Police have called the Pearson incident the largest gold heist in Canadian history, and seven other suspects have been arrested in connection with the case.
The heist took place on April 17, 2023 after a flight arrived from Zurich, Switzerland, with a cargo shipment of 400 kilograms of gold — valued at more than $20 million at the time — and about $2.5 million in foreign currency. The items were reported missing the following day.
Two groups were involved in the case, Mavity said in January — one being Air Canada employees, who police are alleging helped facilitate the theft, and a group of outsiders, to which Chaudhary belonged.
Mavity said Chaudhary is believed to have facilitated the sale and movement of the gold out of Canada.
According to the Crown’s statement of allegations, which was exclusively obtained by CBC’s The Fifth Estate in January, Chaudhary was “the most involved in the planning of the theft” — as well as another suspect’s flight to the United States and “other post-offence conduct.”
One suspect referred to him as the heist’s “top dog,” the document said.
