Police inspected about 400 shipping containers at the Port of Montreal between mid-December and March and discovered nearly 600 stolen vehicles, most of them from the Greater Toronto Area.
The operation revealed how Canada’s second-biggest port has become a major transport hub for stolen vehicle exports. Police made it known it’s owing to the port’s strategic location and massive container volume. Though authorities revealed they are doing what they can to end the scourge of auto theft, experts say jurisdictional limitations, a lack of personnel, and organized crime are making it impossible to end the scourge.
Bryan Gast, vice president of investigative services at Équité Association, an anti-crime organization composed of insurance companies said: “It’s a very large port.” With rail and road linkages to the Greater Toronto Area, Montreal’s port is “conveniently located” for criminals.
Gast, an Ontario Provincial Police investigator for over 20 years said stolen vehicles are arranged in shipping containers in the Toronto area, given falsified paperwork which includes customs declarations stating the cargo is legitimate, and then transported to the port by rail or truck.
Gast’s organization took part in Project Vector, the Ontario Provincial Police-led operation at the port which recovered 598 stolen vehicles between December and March.
Besides its location, the great volume of merchandise moving through the port is capitalized on by criminals. According to port authorities, about 1.7 million containers moved through the Port of Montreal in 2023, including 70 percent of Canada’s legal vehicle exports. That’s approximately a million more containers than Canada’s next two biggest East Coast ports combined.
Gast said car thieves “can intermingle their containers that contain these stolen vehicles in among the trade that’s legally flowing out of Canada.”
Renée Larouche, Port of Montreal’s spokesperson, revealed it works closely with police and border services, but port officials can open containers only to save someone’s life or prevent environmental damage.
Larouche said over 800 police officers from a range of agencies have access cards to enter the port and, if they have a warrant, open containers. However, only border officers can open containers without a warrant in customs-controlled areas of the port.
75 percent of the vehicles recovered during Project Vector were from Ontario, including 125 from the Peel Region, which according to local police is the province’s car theft capital.
