While suspects in the Toronto airport gold heist were under intense, around-the-clock police surveillance, one of them franticly made increasingly angry and desperate phone calls chasing down money, feeling cheated and abandoned by his friends, court heard.
asserted
court → make → friends
“It’s already falling apart,” a caller identified in court as Parmpal Sidhu said over the phone nine months after more than $22.5 million in gold bars and cash was stolen after arriving at Pearson airport on a flight from Switzerland.
asserted
million → fall → Switzerland
As a police net tightened around them, suspects fled Canada, tried to dodge surveillance, hired expensive lawyers and viciously turned against one another, police wiretaps show.
asserted
wiretaps → tighten → one
“Everybody’s on their own.
asserted
Everybody → ’ → own
Everybody’s worried about themselves,” he said in a call.
asserted
he → ’ → call
“Everyone got money and I’m stuck here,” he said in another.
asserted
he → get → another
Sidhu was an Air Canada employee in the Pearson airport cargo warehouse from where the crate was stolen on April 17, 2023.
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crate → steal → April
He was arrested April 5, 2024, one of the first of nine men to be charged and the first to plead not guilty and face trial in the spectacular case.
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He → arrest → case
Only about a kilogram of the gold has been recovered.
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kilogram → recover → gold
His trial on Tuesday in Ontario Superior Court in Brampton, Ont., heard a handful of the thousands of wiretap recordings Peel Regional Police made in their probe.
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Police → hear → probe
“I am not paying 10 grand for this lawyer.
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I → pay → lawyer
I am going to make a f–king deal.
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I → go → deal
I’m in my car.
asserted
I → ’m → car
It’s probably tapped.
asserted
It → tap → ?
I got a tracker on my phone.
asserted
I → got → phone
I am fed up of the lies,” he said in a call.
asserted
he → feed → call
“You guys literally threw me in the ditch.
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guys → throw → ditch
That’s what you did.
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you → ’ → what
“I’ve been trying to get you guys to do the right thing.
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guys → try → thing
Nobody’s listening to me, and now I’m the one who’s getting all the f–king heat.”
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who → listen → heat
The phone calls, by a voice identified by a Peel police officer as Sidhu’s, reveal a man facing a financial apocalypse.
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calls → identify → apocalypse
His credit cards were maxed; his American Express card had been declined; he took money out of his line of credit, “freaking out” his wife.
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he → maxe → wife
He spoke of borrowing from his mother.
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He → speak → mother
“I am not joking,” he said in one call, “I am telling you, I am in a hole, and I am going to have to look out for myself.”
asserted
I → joke → myself
Peel police Det. Sarah Angevine testified that people suspected of pulling off the largest gold heist in Canadian history were under police scrutiny, including physical surveillance, phone wiretaps and microphone probes planted in their homes and cars.
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people → testify → homes
The wiretap recordings, most of which are partially obscured by background music and noise, show an apparent escalation of paranoia, anger, financial problems and efforts to be paid money.
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most → obscure → money
Angevine said the people on the wiretaps often used code names or nicknames for people that police believed to be some of the others accused in the heist.
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police → say → heist
There are references to someone called by the Punjabi word for “Black,” believed to be code for Durante King-Mclean, the accused driver in the gold heist who is Black and the only person not of South Asian descent accused in the heist.
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who → be → heist
Someone named “Grove” is a reference to Archit Grover, Angevine said, who is accused of supplying the truck used to move the stolen gold from the airport warehouse.
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who → name → warehouse
Court heard earlier that Ansalan Chaudhary, who admitted he was one of the masterminds of the heist, had flown to Dubai after the heist.
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he → hear → heist
“This is what Dubai doesn’t f–king understand: I’ll make sure if I lose my cut then f–king Grove will lose his too,” Sidhu is heard saying in one of the wiretaps, court heard.
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court → understand → wiretaps
“You think Grove’s just gonna walk away unscathed?
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Grove → think → ?
He also complained of people leaving Canada after the heist — “who’ve just taken off and left,” he said.
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he → complain → heist
Grover, Chaudhary and the man who court heard was the second mastermind behind the heist, Simran Preet Panesar, a former Air Canada manager, are all known to have travelled abroad.
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court → hear → heist
Sidhu complained in another call, “I didn’t know he was going to f–king vanish,” court heard.
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court → complain → call
He implored the person on the other end of one call to intercede on his behalf: “Make it clear.
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it → implore → behalf
You need to explain the situation,” he said.
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he → need → situation
He said the guy “didn’t believe me that I got charged.”
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I → say → me
“You know how f–king angry it makes me, because I never cheated anybody.”
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I → know → anybody
He also made apparent threats amid his anger.
asserted
He → make → anger
…and 13 more, not listed.
The Aporia
