ED raids Canada gold heist suspect’s home

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today raided the rented accommodations in Sector 38 and Sector 79 of Simran Preet Panesar, one of the nine suspects in the $20 million gold heist from Toronto Pearson International Airport in April 2023.

ED sleuths reached the suspect’s house in Sector 79 around 6 am and conducted investigation till 4 pm. Sources said both Panesar and his wife were probed in the matter for around 10 hours. The sleuths left the house with four bags of documents around 4 pm after which Panesar, with mask on, and his wife drove away to an undisclosed location.

Neither ED officials nor Panesar spoke to the media.

An Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act has been registered.

In April 2024, Peel Regional Police (PRP) booked nine persons, including former Air Canada supervisor Panesar and issued an arrest warrant against him. Panesar and co-accused Parampal Sidhu, who lived in Brampton, were then employed at Toronto Pearson’s warehouse facility and are suspected to have played a role in the theft of cargo containing 6,600 bars of gold, weighing 400 kg. Around 20 million Canadian dollars (CAD), and foreign currency worth 2.5 million CAD also went missing on April 17, 2023.

The Canada police suspect Panesar tracked the flight carrying gold till its arrival and had access to the storage facility. He is reported to have given a tour of the facility to Canada police during the investigation. Panesar reportedly left Canada three months after the truckload of gold went missing.