Peel Regional Police have issued a bench warrant for a man connected to the Toronto Pearson Airport gold heist after he failed to appear in court.
Prasath Paramalingam, 35, of Brampton, was charged with accessory after the fact for aiding 25-year-old Durante King-McLean during the airport heist, which saw King-McLean allegedly drive off with millions worth of gold bars in April 2023.
On Thursday, a police spokesperson confirmed with CityNews that a bench warrant has been in place since August after Paramalingam failed to show up for his court appearance. A bench warrant stems from the judge’s authority.
PRP investigators confirmed in April that King-McLean and Paramalingam were indicted in the U.S. for a conspiracy to engage in international firearms trafficking.
U.S. officials became involved in Sept. 2023, a few months after the gold heist at Pearson airport, when one of the suspects, identified as King-McLean, was pulled over for suspected motor vehicle violations in Pennsylvania.
Police determined that King-McLean, who fled the scene on foot, had been in the country illegally. Responding officers searched his rental vehicle and located 65 firearms that were allegedly destined to be illegally smuggled into Canada. Two of those firearms were fully automatic and considered machine guns under federal law, and 11 of the firearms were determined to be stolen.
U.S. investigators accused Paramalingam of orchestrating King-McLean’s illegal entry into the U.S. and arranging funding for King-McLean to purchase the various firearms he obtained in Florida, Georgia, and elsewhere. The U.S. Attorney’s office later said that Paramalingam was involved in the alleged firearm trafficking with King-McLean and had conspired with the accused since April 2023, around the same time as the Pearson gold heist.
King-McLean remains in police custody in the U.S. but remains wanted Canada-wide on charges related to the heist. Canada-wide arrest warrants have also been issued for Simran Preet Panesar, 31, a former Air Canada employee working with the airline during the heist, Arsalan Chaudhary, 42, and Archit Grover, 36.
Police have called it the largest gold theft in Canadian history.
The stolen gold and foreign currency were ordered from a refinery in Zurich, Switzerland, and were transported in the hull of an Air Canada flight to Toronto. The gold and currency were later loaded on a suspect’s truck after he presented a fraudulent airway bill to warehouse employees who loaded the shipment onto his truck.
Despite the arrests, the majority of the stolen gold remains unrecovered.
