Auto-Theft Export Networks in Canada

Vehicle theft in Canada is falling on all three theft series published for 2025, while police and border agencies keep announcing recoveries they describe as organized export operations: 598 vehicles recovered from containers at the Port of Montreal in Project Vector, and 306 vehicles recovered in Project Chickadee, a freight-forwarding case announced in December 2025. Police, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and Équité Association, the insurance industry’s crime body, say organized crime is involved. None of the sources cited here gives a share. Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (CISC) said most thefts involve lower-level threat groups, and Global News reported that a fuller CISC assessment, which it obtained under access to information, states that the share of stolen vehicles that organized crime exports is unknown. The “$1 billion” figure so often quoted has been used for insurance claims, for the value of vehicles stolen and, in one police estimate, for revenue; none is a measured figure for criminal revenue. Attempted export is documented through large container recoveries and recoveries abroad, but the reported court outcomes in the named ring cases are few, and the newest federal case, Project NoCargo, concerns vehicles the RCMP describes as obtained through finance fraud. This file sets out what is documented, who alleged the rest, and what has not been established.

How the Thefts Are Done and How Vehicles Leave

Global News reported in February 2024, in a piece featuring Équité’s Bryan Gast, that thieves can use readily available, inexpensive tools to intercept the signal between a car and its key fob, a relay attack, and described two other methods: breaking in and programming a new key through the on-board diagnostic (OBD) port, and injecting messages into the vehicle’s internal network. The Indo-Canadian Voice reported in January 2022 that, in Peel police’s Project High 5, suspects were alleged to have used the vehicle’s OBD port to program keys and that the thefts “were not the result of relay thefts.” Global News reported that the Project Chickadee search warrants turned up key programmers and an on-board diagnostic reader.

CISC, in an assessment Global News obtained through access to information, described a chain of roles: spotters, thieves and drivers at the lower level, and facilitators, buyers and exporters above them. Global reported that thieves earn between $500 and $1,500 a vehicle and that exporters earn $50,000 per load.

The routes out that agencies describe are export in sea containers, chiefly through the Port of Montreal, which CISC called the “most prominent departure point,” with Halifax and Vancouver also named in Chickadee; dismantling for parts; re-VINning, in which a vehicle identification number is replaced and the vehicle registered and resold in Canada; and use in other crimes before destruction, per CISC. Gast told CTV Montreal that vehicles are packed into containers in the Toronto area with falsified customs paperwork and moved by rail or truck to Montreal. CBSA says the exported VINs it collects are self-reported by exporters and that “in some cases, these numbers are reused or entirely fabricated.”

No source cited here measures how many stolen vehicles take each route. A Peel deputy chief told the House committee in 2024 that about 60% were headed for export and about 40% were re-VINned and resold in Canada. Canadian Press reported that unnamed police said as many as one-third of stolen vehicles are resold within Canada and that a majority are ferried out of the country by organized crime rings, without a named source or a measure. In Project Fairfield, the Globe and Mail reported, roughly 40% of the cars recovered had been re-VINned and the other 60% were destined to be shipped and sold overseas. Each is one witness’s estimate or one set of recoveries, not a national share. A newer route, as the RCMP describes it, relies on finance fraud using stolen or manufactured personal credentials (Project NoCargo, below).

The Numbers: Three Series That Do Not Match

Statistics Canada called 2025 the second straight annual fall after three straight increases; the rate is 64% below its 2003 peak. It counts only incidents that come to police attention; its 2026 release said self-reported 2019 data indicated that about half of all motor vehicle thefts, break and enters, and robberies were reported to police. The sources cited here do not reconcile its 83,652 incidents with Équité’s 46,999 thefts; the definitions differ.

Équité’s first-half 2026 report counted 20,759 thefts, down 10.1% from 23,093 a year earlier (Ontario down 8.4%, Quebec 6.4%, Western Canada 14.3%, Atlantic Canada 4.1%). The fall is slowing; the government’s January 2026 response, citing Équité, put the first-half 2025 decline at 19.1%. Toronto differs: NOW Toronto, citing Toronto Police Service figures, reported thefts up 8.8% so far in 2026. Équité put the 2025 recovery rate at 59% (Ontario 51%, Quebec 48%, Western Canada 73%) and said unrecovered vehicles point to export, chop shops and re-VINning, without a breakdown. Noovo reported a national first-half 2026 recovery rate of 53.9%. Each rate carries its publisher’s definition.

CBSA counts something else: stolen vehicles it intercepts before they leave Canada. That is a count of interceptions, not of thefts, and it is not part of any of the three theft series above. Its figures vary by document.

The sources do not say whether the differences reflect intercepted versus detained vehicles, year-to-date versus full-year counts, or something else.

What Agencies Say About Organized Crime

Every agency cited here says organized crime is involved, but the statements differ in what they claim. CISC’s December 2023 summary said reporting of organized-crime involvement in vehicle theft rose significantly in 2022 and 2023, that groups involved in vehicle theft were more than 12% of the organized crime groups it assessed, and that this was a 62% increase in reporting over 2022. Global News, which obtained the fuller assessment, reported 78 such groups across Canada, 63 of them in Ontario and Quebec.

The same assessment drew limits. CISC said “most vehicle thefts involve lower-level-threat groups, with violent street gangs being the most prevalent,” and that higher-level groups and transnational facilitators are “believed to be involved in the export of stolen vehicles.” For Western Canada it said thefts “consist mostly of crimes of opportunity, with vehicles stolen while left running or unlocked.” Global News, which obtained the fuller CISC assessment under access to information, reported that it states the percentage of stolen vehicles that organized crime exports overseas, compared with the number staying in Canada, is unknown. The federal government repeated the structure at the February 2024 summit: auto theft “increasingly involves organized crime groups,” most thefts are by lower-level groups, and transnational groups are believed to export.

Industry and parliamentary bodies went further. Équité’s 2025 report said losses are “funneled into organized crime” but gives no split between organized and opportunistic theft. IBC told the House committee in November 2025: “Organized crime continues to drive a significant amount of auto theft in Canada.” The committee’s December 2024 report attributed the rise in theft to “the involvement of organized crime, evolving theft techniques, increasing demand for parts on the black market,” and gaps in vehicle security systems. York’s police chief, Jim MacSween, said at an Ontario auto theft summit, CBC reported: “Organized auto theft is among the top three revenue generators for criminal organizations.”

Some police statements cut the other way. An OPP inspector said of Project Fairfield, as the Globe and Mail reported, that those charged were not affiliated with a specific gang or group but were organized in nature. Toronto police said, Canadian Press reported, that the Project Taurus group had no distinct ties to local gang activity but was part of a complex organization. An Ottawa police staff sergeant said in 2023: “Not every stolen car is destined to be exported.” An SPVM commander told the committee that half of 550 SPVM arrests in 2023 were of people aged 15 to 25, many with no record, and 36 of 124 people arrested by the Provincial Carjacking Joint Task Force were youths, Global reported. Those figures show young people are involved; they do not show whether they act for organized groups, which the OPP told the committee use spotters, thieves and runners.

The Federal and Provincial Response

The federal government announced $28 million over three years on February 7, 2024, for CBSA export examination, intelligence, rail examinations in the Greater Toronto Area and detection technology, and held a National Summit on auto theft in Ottawa the next day. The National Action Plan on Combatting Auto Theft followed on May 20, 2024, with the stated focus of “disrupting, dismantling and prosecuting the organized crime groups involved in auto theft.” A Public Safety briefing note from March 2025 puts the plan at $45.8 million over three years, $30.8 million of it for CBSA on a cash basis. The $28 million headline and the $30.8 million figure differ, and the sources do not reconcile them.

Case File: Project Vector (OPP and CBSA, Port of Montreal)

Vector is the best-documented case here because it rests on an official CBSA release with counts by police service, including Toronto 215, Peel 125, York 58, Halton 19, Durham 15 and OPP 13. It is a recovery operation, not a prosecution. CBSA’s release says approximately 75% of vehicles recovered from sea containers in Montreal are identified as stolen in Ontario; 483 of 598 is about 81%. In testimony on April 15, 2024, CBSA’s Aaron McCrorie gave 598 vehicles for Project Vector in his opening statement and later, answering a separate question, said CBSA had “now seized 561 vehicles in the Port of Montreal,” without a time period; the 561 is a separate Port of Montreal figure, not a second Vector count. Kearns said at the announcement, “We’ve taken $34.5 million out of the pockets of organized crime,” CP24 reported, and attributed the pattern to a large supply of high-end vehicles and access to the 400-series highways. The release said the recovered vehicles have been connected to various vehicle crimes, “including carjackings and home invasions.”

Case File: Project Chickadee (OPP and CBSA)

OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique said at the announcement, Global News reported: “Motivated by profit, organized crime views auto theft as a low-risk, high-reward enterprise.” OPP Det.-Insp. Scott Wade said, as CP24 reported, that two of the accused were on release orders for earlier auto-theft or driving offences, and Global News reported that most of the 20 were held for bail, six remained in custody and three were released on conditions. Police said vehicles sell for about double their Canadian value overseas. The announcements do not say how many of the 20 are alleged members of a criminal organization or name a leader, and all 306 vehicles are described as recovered, so they do not say how many had left Canada.

Case File: Project Odyssey (Peel Regional Police)

Chief Nishan Duraiappah called it “a highly-orchestrated criminal operation,” Global reported, and Peel police said more than half of those arrested were already on release or bail for auto-theft offences (Global News, CP24).

Case Files: Quebec Port Operations and Projet Rechercher

Case File: Project Stratis (Peel Regional Police)

Peel Deputy Chief Nick Milinovich described, as CP24 reported, “organized criminals who would orchestrate car jackings”; that is a police characterization, not a court finding. Stratis is a violent-carjacking case in which police allege an export plan.

Case Files: Foreign Recoveries, From Malta to Lagos

Case File: Project NoCargo (RCMP), the Fraud Pattern

The RCMP pilot, run from June 2025 with Interpol Ottawa, CBSA, FINTRAC and financial institutions, was announced on August 5, 2026: 392 vehicles worth about $28 million intercepted at marine ports in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. The RCMP described vehicle finance fraud in which criminals steal or manufacture personal credentials to obtain auto loans and insurance, with the vehicle then exported. FINTRAC produced 90 auto-theft disclosures over two years covering 76,097 transactions and 408 subjects of interest. The release names no charges and no destinations. It says Interpol Ottawa detected “an emerging trend of transnational organized crime networks exporting fraudulently obtained vehicles overseas” in 2025. Équité’s 2025 report separately counted vehicle finance fraud at port operations: 104 in Quebec (up 63% from 64) and 70 in Nova Scotia (up 89% from 37); the report does not define the unit. The RCMP’s headline calls the 392 “stolen vehicles”; the release does not say whether they are counted in the theft series above.

A Court Decision: ServiceOntario Insider and Re-VINning (2025 ONSC 1829)

OPP Project Myra, announced July 28, 2022, charged 28 people with 242 offences, among them ServiceOntario employees, in an investigation of fraudulent vehicle registrations in Ontario and Saskatchewan; the OPP said 214 vehicles worth more than $12 million were recovered (Global News). Its method was re-VINning and fraudulent registration, and police did not allege export. In 2025 the Ontario Superior Court (Justice Ranjan Agarwal, 2025 ONSC 1829) found a former ServiceOntario employee guilty of conspiracy to traffic in stolen vehicles on counts involving an Audi SUV and two Range Rovers, including a finding that she knew or was wilfully blind that the seller was required to provide a used vehicle information package for the SUV. The judge described the wiretap evidence as “entirely circumstantial,” and, Canadian Underwriter reported, the judge was not convinced of her guilt on all of the charges laid. Canadian Underwriter described the case as growing from a Peel investigation, while CP24 and CTV’s W5 linked it to Project Myra. CP24 (CTV’s W5) reported that a co-accused was also convicted in March; its text says both were still awaiting sentencing, though a photo caption refers to a sentence being read in Brampton in May 2025. Canadian Underwriter does not say whether the co-accused was convicted, and neither outlet reports sentence terms. The case concerns registration fraud, not container export.

The Port: What Officials Say They Can and Cannot Examine

CBSA’s February 2024 release calls its interdiction role “the last line of defence” and says “it is not practical to manually inspect each shipment.” About 2,300 containers come and go from the Port of Montreal daily, CBSA’s McCrorie told the committee. He cited international reporting that “about 2% of containers are physically inspected at any given time,” declined to give CBSA’s own percentage, and said CBSA will “never have the logistical capability to screen every container going through.” CBSA’s December 2025 results release says it “acts on 100% of referrals”.

The Port of Montreal’s spokesperson told CTV Montreal that port officials open containers only to save a life or prevent environmental damage, and that more than 800 police officers hold port access cards and can open containers with a warrant. The Montreal Port Authority’s president and CEO said in February 2025 that, though “vehicles are not stolen from port territory,” the port bears “a collective responsibility” to stop the export. The Halifax Port Authority’s president, Allan Gray, told the committee, the Globe and Mail reported, that scanning a container does not necessarily show whether a car in it is stolen if the shipping paperwork is falsified, and that “Spending a lot of money on scanners may not fix the problem.” CBSA reports 189 stolen vehicles intercepted at its new Halifax examination facility between March 2024 and July 2025.

Whether organized crime has penetrated the ports is contested. Transport Canada’s February 2026 briefing note says ports “have increasingly become targets for organized crime, facilitating activities such as auto theft and the trafficking of illicit drugs such as fentanyl,” and names Vancouver, Montreal and Halifax as most at risk; it supplies no data. SPVM Inspector Dominique Côté told CTV Montreal in April 2024 that police had no information showing the port is infiltrated by organized crime. A Montreal Port Authority official told the House committee, according to its report, that only 200 of 1,200 longshoremen hold security clearance.

Destinations as Agencies State Them

None of the sources cited here quantifies how many Canadian-stolen vehicles go to any destination. These are the places named, each attributed to whoever named it, and each describing vehicles only.

Équité’s Gast told Global News in January 2023 that a car worth about $100,000 in Canada can sell for up to $250,000 in West Africa, an estimate; the OPP says vehicles sell for about double.

Violence and Carjackings

The Pointer quoted a CISC report as saying violent street gangs are “already the predominant subset of organized crime involved in carjacking”; CISC’s published summary says violent street gangs are the most prevalent group in vehicle theft. CISC said better vehicle security was expected to increase carjackings and could ultimately lead to home invasions, a projection, not an observed result. Police have tied some carjacking crews to export. In Project Taurus (Toronto police, February 2022) seven people were charged over 28 carjacked high-end vehicles; 19 were recovered with CBSA help and, per Canadian Press, the destination was the United Arab Emirates. In Project Tyga (May 2022) two men were charged after a month of carjackings, and police believed the vehicles were for sale to illicit businesses in the Greater Toronto Area or for transport overseas. No court outcome is reported in the sources cited for either.

The link is not always shown. Peel’s Project Night Train (July 2025) concerned 17 violent incidents, home invasions and jewellery-store robberies, between May and December 2024; six adults and six young persons were charged with 136 offences including attempted murder. One of the two incidents the release describes involved a demand for keys to a luxury vehicle, but the release does not mention export or relay techniques.

The summit release put Greater Toronto Area carjackings up 104% from 2021 to 2022. Peel said in March 2026 that auto theft was down 20% and carjackings down 79% against the same time a year earlier. The Provincial Carjacking Joint Task Force, September 2023 to March 2024, reported 124 arrests, 749 charges and 177 vehicles recovered; Toronto police said 44% of those arrested were on bail, Global News reported. Reported sentences are few: Cambridge Today reported one, in a case with no export link, for a man who pleaded guilty to ten offences from robberies and carjackings in 2019 and 2021. Its lead says four years, while its breakdown of the sentence gives other figures and does not explain the gap.

Words Used and Who Used Them

Key Cases at a Glance

Where Things Stand

Nationally, theft is still falling, but more slowly: Équité counted 20,759 thefts in the first half of 2026, 10.1% fewer than a year earlier, while NOW Toronto, citing Toronto police, reported a rise in the city. Attempted export is documented through the container recoveries, from Vector’s 598 vehicles to Chickadee’s 306, and through recoveries abroad, and the newest federal case, NoCargo, concerns vehicles the RCMP describes as obtained through finance fraud. People charged in these cases are presumed innocent, and the reported court outcomes are few: convictions reported in a ServiceOntario re-VINning case (2025 ONSC 1829) and one reported guilty plea in Projet Rechercher. Bill C-14’s auto-theft provisions took effect July 15, 2026; the immobilizer regulation is proposed, not final; and ISED’s 2024 consultation on key-programming and relay devices lists no decision. How much theft is organized, and how many vehicles leave the country, remain unanswered in the sources cited here.

Standing of This File