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IBC contributed to covert operation that recovered 60 stolen cars

November 28th, 2016  |  Auto

The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) seized a golden opportunity to strike back at insurance-hemorrhaging car thieves.

Alongside several other law enforcement organizations—including the Peel Regional Police, Toronto Police Service, and Canada Border Services Agency—who contributed to a York Regional Police-based covert operation called Project Cyclone, the IBC helped enable the recovery of 60 high-end vehicles worth an estimated $3.4 million. In addition to that, the surveillance involved in Project Cyclone allowed authorities to prevent a purported plot to kidnap a Vaughan millionaire. They also seized over a million dollars with of stolen cargo comprising items such as firearms, car parts, alcohol, and e-cigarettes.

All of this has resulted in 23 individuals now facing 137 different charges, with more perpetrators still potentially out there. One of those detainees is Balwinder Dhaliwal, a Missassauga man who has been identified as the mastermind of this auto-theft crime ring. He has a well-established criminal past and was convicted and sentenced in 2000 to 10 years in prison for auto theft.

What allowed the stolen cars to go so long without being traced was that they were reportedly being stripped of their Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN) and replaced by legitimate American ones, with false paperwork to boot. A lucky break this past spring allowed police to trace a pair of stolen vehicles to a garage owned by Dhaliwal.

IBC’s contributions to the operation proved vital in the larger investigation, as it was able to provide the team with vehicle histories, insurance information for stolen vehicles, the seizure of a cargo container in Toronto, and assisted on the stoppage of vehicles that were set to be shipped overseas from Halifax and Montreal.

According to IBC, auto theft in Canada has risen for the second consecutive year, going up 6% after a long trend of decline.