A list of the biggest gold heists
A survey of some cases where gold didn’t get to point B shows the recent Toronto caper isn’t the largest and Air Canada has been targeted before.
March 1966 – Two men wearing Air Canada ground crew uniforms and wielding a fake waybill stole 12 bars bound for the Ottawa mint from Winnipeg. Police later arrested five people and recovered almost all of the gold. The dozen bars at today’s circa US$2,000 per oz. gold price would be worth US$9.6 million.
April 1974 – The Stopwatch Gang, named for its quick robberies, stole gold bullion then valued at $785,000 from a cargo area at the Ottawa international airport. One member wore an Air Canada uniform and held up a guard at gunpoint. Two of the gang members have died in recent years.
January 1976 – Robbers linked to the Palestinian Palestine Liberation Organization blew a hole in the wall of the British Bank of the Middle East in Beirut. They made off with gold bars then valued at US$20 million as well as bonds and currencies valued at more than US$100 million.
November 1983 – Probably the largest gold heist. Six armed men seized 2.7 tonnes of gold then valued at $46 million from the Brink’s-Mats warehouse near London’s Heathrow Airport. Years later, a British court convicted 13 people. Inflation makes the take worth more than $123 million in today’s dollars. But the roughly $2,000 per oz. gold price these days would value the heist at around US$190 million.
July 2019 – Several armed robbers posed as police officers and made off with US$40 million in gold and other precious metals from the Guarulhos International Airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The thieves took two hostages the night before the heist to learn insider information. No one’s been caught.
