Sixteen people have been arrested and face a total of 116 charges in a joint-forces operation led by York Regional Police focused on identifying and targeting the criminal networks that are funding and fuelling the increase in violent carjackings across the Greater Toronto Area.
"Multiple jurisdictions across the GTA have seen a marked increase in carjackings during and post the COVID-19 pandemic," police said. "These often violent crimes of opportunity, many involving armed suspects, continue to cause havoc in our communities and pose a serious risk to public safety. Many of the carjacked vehicles, once stolen, are often used to commit other violent crimes such as retail robberies and other carjackings."
Multiple arrests and search warrants were executed Oct. 11 and 12, resulting in 16 people being charged with 116 offence, police said.
A crime prevention and social media campaign was also integrated as part of the Operation GTA task force, which was initiated in June 2022. Investigators connected with large segments of the population and reached more than one million followers, police said.
Nineteen stolen vehicles worth approximately $1.4 million were recovered and an additional 50 re-vinned vehicles worth over $5 million were identified. These re-vinned vehicles are stolen and have had their vehicle identification numbers (VIN) altered. Investigators believe that some of these vehicles have been resold to unsuspecting buyers.
Partner agencies included the Toronto Police Service, Durham Regional Police Service, Halton Regional Police Service, Peel Regional Police and Ontario Provincial Police, with funding provided by the Criminal Intelligence Service Ontario. The funding supported investigative resources to coordinate investigations across jurisdictional boundaries.
Anyone with information about York Region occurrences is asked to contact the York Regional Police at 1-866-876-5423, ext. 6631, or call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-tips; leave an anonymous tip online on this website.
