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Toronto airport gold heist suspect gets 13 years in the U.S. for gun smuggling
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The alleged driver in a $22-million gold heist at Toronto’s Pearson Airport in 2023 has been sentenced to more than 13 years in a U.S. prison for attempted gun smuggling.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Durante King-Mclean, 27, of Cambridge, Ont., was sentenced to 160 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Jennifer P. Wilson this week.
The charges stem from traffic stop on Sept. 2, 2023, four and a half months after the heist took place. Pennsylvania State Police in Franklin County stopped a rental vehicle driven by King-Mclean. During the stop he fled on foot but was apprehended after a brief foot chase.
A subsequent search of the vehicle found 65 handguns, each one hidden in a sock. Of the 65, two were fully automatic, 11 had been stolen and one had an obliterated serial number. Police say some of the proceeds from the stolen gold had been used to buy guns in the U.S. to smuggle into Canada.
King-Mclean pleaded guilty to conspiring with others to illegally traffic firearms on May 14, 2025. The crime carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison or a fine of $250,000.
According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice, King-Mclean had been in touch with his co-conspirators from the time of the heist until his arrest. Police say he entered the U.S. shortly after the heist and had been staying at an Airbnb in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, until he rented the vehicle at the end of August 2023 and headed north towards Canada with the handguns.
“Firearms trafficking is a serious crime that puts guns in the hands of the criminals that terrorize our communities in the United States and Canada,” said Special Agent Eric J. DeGree of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “King-Mclean’s lengthy sentence reflects the seriousness of his crime and shows the heavy penalties perpetrators can expect. This case also demonstrates the strength of our cooperation with our local and international law enforcement partners to protect our communities from violent gun crime.”
Nathan Abel, Acting Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations, added: “The conviction of Durante King-Mclean underscores the serious threat posed by firearms traffickers, whose actions fuel violence in communities both here and in Canada.”
The heist took place on April 17, 2023, when a shipping container filled with almost-pure gold bars weighing 400.19 kilograms was stolen from an Air Canada cargo facility shortly after arriving on an Air Canada flight from Zurich, Switzerland.
Even though the load was valued at $22.5 million, a driver was able to present an Air Canada waybill for a shipment of seafood that had already been picked up the day before, and have an Air Canada employee put the container onto his truck by forklift. It wasn’t even noticed until three hours later, when Brink’s personnel arrived to collect the valuable container and Air Canada employees couldn’t find it.
Brinks had a contract to transport the gold, which came from a metal refinery in Switzerland, to the TD Bank in Toronto.
The crime’s ringleader, 43-year-old Arsalan Chaudhary, was sentenced to four years this past April in a Brampton, Ont., courtroom. He was also ordered to pay $22 million in restitution to Brink’s.
In addition to King-Mclean and Chaudhary, five other arrests have been made in the case, while two people remain fugitives.
Simran Preet Panesar, 33, from Brampton, is believed to be in India after quitting his job as manager at the cargo warehouse where the gold was taken. Prasath Paramalingam, 36, from Brampton, was arrested but disappeared after his release and is wanted for failing to appear in court. He is also wanted in the U.S. in a related gun-running case.
Much of the gold remains unrecovered, although police have found some of it made into gold bracelets, but worth only about $90,000.
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