Project Stallion: Toronto police recover $60 million in stolen vehicles, charging more than 200 people

Toronto police chief Myron Demkiw is holding a press conference on the auto theft investigation Wednesday afternoon in Etobicoke.
Thestar.com
Oct. 26, 2023
Jason Miller, Abhiraj Lamba

More than 1,000 stolen vehicles worth nearly $60 million have been recovered and a stunning 228 people are facing criminal charges in the Project Stallion investigation led by Toronto police, Chief Myron Demkiw announced Wednesday.

“Project Stallion is a reflection of how seriously the Toronto Police Service is taking the issue of vehicle thefts in Toronto,” Demkiw said in a prepared statement released ahead of a Wednesday news conference at the Toronto Police College.

Project Stallion operated between Nov. 7, 2022, and Sept. 24, 2023, targeting the city’s crisis in vehicle and catalytic converter thefts in the city’s west end; in all, the investigation resulted in a total of 553 charges and saw the recovery of 1,080 vehicles, many of which were “high-end vehicles,” Supt. Ron Taverner said at the news conference.

He said the vehicles were targeted at a number of locations, including transit parking lots, parking areas near Pearson International Airport, hotel parking lots and residential driveways. The Woodbine Casino area also saw a “large number of vehicles” stolen, he said, describing a pattern reflected in years of Toronto police data.

He said the results of Project Stallion come at a time when vehicle thefts have more than doubled across the city since 2019.

Taverner said in many cases the vehicles recovered were being prepared to be shipped overseas, with many of the vehicles recovered from staging areas and other spots between Toronto and the Port of Montreal.

The unpredictability of how the vehicles are being stolen and where they’re being sold is “part of the problem that we face,” Taverner said.

Taverner cautioned that Project Stallion largely targeted people at the lower end of the criminal organizational hierarchy.

He added: “It’s very difficult to get to the head of the snake.”

Project Stallion, spearheaded by officers in 22 and 23 Divisions, represents only one of the many initiatives being undertaken by Toronto police to tackle auto thefts “which are becoming increasingly violent and high-risk,” Demkiw said.

“The level of violence being used in these crimes represents a new and evolving threat,” he said.

GTA police forces and the OPP recently teamed up on a Provincial Carjacking Joint Task Force that Demkiw called an “unprecedented integration of efforts on this particular type of criminality.”

Armed carjackings have risen sharply along with overall auto thefts in recent years; there have been more than 300 carjackings in the GTA in 2023, with over 200 of those taking place in Toronto, police say.

Thieves continue to steal vehicles at near-record rates, with 9,747 thefts reported already this year, police said. Stolen vehicles are often shipped for resale overseas, or are “re-VINed” and sold domestically.

In Toronto, Lexus RX350s, Range Rovers, Toyota Highlanders, Honda CR-Vs are among the most commonly stolen vehicles.

“The conclusion of Project Stallion does not mark the end of our commitment to this issue,” Taverner said in a prepared statement.

Toronto residents should brace themselves for the long haul as combating this crisis will not be a quick or cheap fix, said Matt Torigian, a former Waterloo police chief and ex-deputy solicitor general.

He said it’s not surprising to see the increase in enforcement and collaboration across numerous agencies, including border security, as the degree of violence seen recently in carjackings and the spike in auto thefts continues to disrupt public safety and people’s livelihoods.

“These are not quick, easy and inexpensive investigations, but we need to be tireless in our pursuit to dismantle these organized criminal enterprises,” Torigian said.

As seen with the scope and time invested in project Stallion, Torigian said “it takes a lot of time and effort and they’re not for the faint of heart.”

Project Stallion underscores how there has been a shift in strategies used by thieves, who have pivoted from tactics like using technology to clone key fobs to steal a single car from a driveway, to finding areas like airport and hotel parking lots where they can find the same high-end cars in mass, said Mark Mendelson, a crime specialist and former lead homicide detective with Toronto police.

“There has been a morphing of their modus operandi,” Mendelson said of criminals wanting to lower the risk as people took steps to make the thefts more difficult.

He said police are also finding vehicles in mass, because the thieves are either staging them in a particular area or holding off until when they find the most ideal time to move them through the ports. A large number are also being “re-VINed” and sold on Canadian lots, he said.

“They’re very much alive to the fact that border security are onto this, so they’re holding onto the vehicles until things cool down,” Mendelson said.

Damon Lyons, executive director of the Canadian Vehicle Exporter’s Association, said all industry players including exporters, shippers and auto traders need to be proactive in their aid of police efforts to clamp down on an issue that is becoming increasingly bad for business.

“It is a massive problem right now,” said Lyons, who attended the Toronto police announcement Wednesday. “The negative brush is the biggest thing for our association. We have to make sure that we separate the legitimate traders apart from the organized criminals that are stealing cars.”

Police are offering a series of tips to help residents reduce their risk of theft, including: Making sure your car doors are locked with the windows closed; parking in a well-lit area, indoors, if possible; installing motion-sensor lights and surveillance cameras; covering your vehicle’s VIN; and storing your car’s fob inside in a Faraday box or pouch.

In a previous update in April, police announced more than 550 stolen cars totalling more than $27 million had been recovered by Project Stallion investigators. At the time, Demkiw said that 314 charges were laid against 119 people.

In February, Project Majestic, a joint effort between Toronto, Peel, and York police, helped recover stolen Canadian vehicles worth $3.5 million in shipping containers in the Republic of Malta. The criminal network was stealing high-end vehicles, including Lexus, Toyota and Honda SUVs, from residential driveways across the Greater Toronto Area.

The vehicles were held inside shipping containers and were ready to be sold illegally, say York police.