A 56-year-old London man is among 11 people facing a combined 96 charges after a joint police investigation saw 52 stolen vehicles worth more than $3.2 million found.
Between October 2023 and January, investigators with York Regional Police Auto Cargo Theft Unit, Canada Border Services Agency and Équité Association launched an investigation into the high-end vehicle theft ring.
The investigation, dubbed Project Mamba, determined a group of criminals were using residential areas to store vehicles that had recently been stolen out of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and southwestern Ontario. The stolen vehicles were to be shipped to places as far away as Azerbaijan and Georgia in eastern Europe.
Six search warrants were carried out at locations in London, Vaughan, Toronto, Cambridge, and Bradford over the past two months. Fifty-two stolen vehicles were recovered at those locations. The estimated value of the recovered vehicles is over $3.2 million, police said.
Darren Proulx of London has been charged with seven offences including trafficking in property obtained by crime, possession of property obtained by crime, storing ammunition carelessly, and possession of a substance for trafficking.
The other ten people charged in the vehicle theft ring are two 20-year-old men from Scarborough, a 57-year-old from Newmarket, a 35-year-old man from Cambridge, a 54-year-old Kitchener resident, a 64-year-old Bradford man, and four Toronto residents ranging in age from 32 to 46.
The full list of charges can be found by clicking here.
The investigation is ongoing, police said.
