For decades, auto theft in Ontario, Canada was viewed as a localised nuisance crime, broken windows, insurance claims, and frustrated car owners. Project CHICKADEE shattered that perception.
What investigators uncovered was not petty theft, but a corporate-style criminal enterprise stretching across borders, ports, and continents.
Led by the Ontario Provincial Police through its Provincial Auto Theft and Towing (PATT) Team, in partnership with the Canada Border Services Agency, the investigation dismantled a sophisticated organisation responsible for stealing and exporting vehicles overseas.
In total, 306 stolen vehicles valued at approximately $25 million were recovered many bound for markets in West Africa and the Middle East, where Canadian SUVs and luxury vehicles fetch premium prices.
Project CHICKADEE began quietly in August 2023, when investigators recovered four stolen vehicles in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada.
What appeared routine quickly raised alarms. Evidence pointed beyond car thieves to freight forwarding companies, drivers, and registered businesses allegedly being used as fronts to move stolen vehicles abroad using fraudulent shipping documentation.
Vehicles were re-VINed, paperwork manipulated, and shipping containers carefully loaded for export through Canada’s busiest ports. Intelligence soon revealed links to transnational organised crime groups, confirming that Ontario had become a supply hub in a global criminal marketplace.
As the probe expanded, officers from the OPP PATT Team, the OPP Organised Crime Enforcement Bureau, and CBSA Intelligence units began intercepting containers in transit and at major ports in Montréal, Vancouver, and Halifax.
The urgency was clear: once containers left Canadian soil, recovery was nearly impossible.
Support poured in from agencies nationwide, including the RCMP, Halton Regional Police, and Équité Association, underscoring how deeply auto theft has become embedded in organised crime financing.
Coordinated raids, massive results
The first enforcement wave struck on October 16, 2025, with search warrants executed in Toronto, Vaughan, Woodbridge, and Etobicoke.
Cash, a re-VINed vehicle, key programmers, and licence plates were seized. One suspect was arrested, while two fled only to be captured later.
The decisive blow came on November 27, 2025.
That day, 23 residential and industrial locations and 13 vehicles were searched across the GTA and beyond, from Brampton and Scarborough to Waterloo, Milton, and Saint-Eustache, Québec. Tactical units, emergency response teams, canine squads, and intelligence officers worked in synchronised precision, a rare show of multi-agency coordination.
By the end of the operation, the scale of the network was unmistakable:
- 306 stolen vehicles recovered in Canada
- Three firearms seized
- Hundreds of licence plates, keys, and key fobs
- Shipping documents used for overseas export
- Forklifts and tractor-trailer cabs used in logistics
- Over $190,000 CAD and $32,000 USD were seized
- Phones, laptops, hard drives, and financial records
In total, 20 individuals were arrested and charged with 134 offences under the Criminal Code, Customs Act, and Cannabis Act.
Among them was Bismark Owusu-Ansah, 64, of Brampton, a Ghanaian national facing five serious charges, including conspiracy to traffic stolen property, exporting property obtained by crime, and possession of stolen property over $5,000.
Financial intelligence from FINTRAC proved critical, while the OPP Provincial Asset Forfeiture Unit moved to seize proceeds of crime, cutting off the financial lifeline of the network.
More than stolen cars
OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique was unequivocal, “auto theft is not victimless. It fuels organised crime, violence, and community insecurity.”
“These are financially motivated crimes,” added Bryan Gast, noting that vehicle theft costs Canada over $1 billion annually, money often reinvested into guns, drugs, and further crime.
A new policing blueprint
Project CHICKADEE marks a turning point. By targeting the entire criminal pipeline, not just the thieves, law enforcement has sent a clear message: Canada will no longer serve as a source market for global auto theft networks.
For victims and communities alike, the operation stands as proof that intelligence-led, collaborative policing can still expose and shut down crime on a global scale
And for criminal networks watching closely, the warning is unmistakable: the pipeline has been exposed, and it is closing fast.
By Stephen Armah Quaye
