Dozens of luxury vehicle thefts outlined in "Project Yellowbird" were part of a 10-year organized crime spree, police said Friday morning.
Working with York, Niagara, Peel and Halton Regional Police, Toronto officers conducted approximately 30 raids across the Toronto area on Thursday morning as part of the project.
Eight people were arrested, and a ninth turned himself into police Thursday night. The group of nine faces approximately 150 theft-related charges, police said, but the list of charges may grow as more stolen property is recovered.
The warrants and subsequent arrests were connected to a string of break-ins involving high-end homes and expensive vehicles. Police searched eight residences, a business, several storage lockers and a cargo container.
The cargo container was holding two stolen cars, Toronto Police Supt. Gilbert said at a news conference on Friday.
Police said dozens of high-end vehicles were stolen with the intention of being shipped overseas, most likely to eastern Europe, then sold for a profit.
RCMP, the Canadian Border Services Agency, Interpol and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security were all involved in the investigation, police said Friday.
Gilbert said they'd recovered 23 vehicles in connection to the project, including the yellow Porsche for which the project was named, and believe they will find more vehicles.
The yellow Porsche was found overseas, and is being shipped back to Canada along with other vehicles and stolen goods.
In addition to vehicles, thieves took jewelry and other valuables, police said. The daytime robberies were conducted by two or three individuals, who would drive a luxury car into a high-income neighbourhood, such as Forest Hill or Rosedale.
The thieves would park the car at the home, break in, steal possessions and car keys, then leave with the owner's car.
All items recovered by police are being catalogued and sorted, and then will be returned to owners.
