TORONTO – Car thefts: a constantly growing and expanding phenomenon. According to a new federal intelligence report, obtained and published by Global News, organized crime operating – so far – in Ontario and Quebec is moving west, to steal vehicles also in Alberta where the number of thefts is increasing exponentially. 

The report, written by the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (CISC) in December 2023, highlights that “with the growing involvement of violent street gangs, law enforcement can expect the phenomenon of violent car thefts to spread into other jurisdictions” and reveals that criminal groups in Ontario and Quebec are moving west both to evade law enforcement in the East and because vehicles from Western Canada “are perceived as less likely to have protection anti-theft”. And in fact, in 2022 and 2023, Alberta reported 24,588 stolen vehicles compared to Quebec’s 29,705 according to data from the Équité Association, a national non-profit organization that tracks crime on behalf of insurers.

According to the CSIS report, the phenomenon has reached impressive dimensions: currently, 78 organized criminal groups (each made up of three or more people) are stealing vehicles across Canada: 63 in Ontario and Quebec. And that’s a 62% increase over 2022, the report says.

Additionally, vehicle thefts are becoming more subtle and brazen. “Although not yet as widespread, there are indications that tow trucks are also being used to steal vehicles parked on the street – a tactic believed to arouse less suspicion from passers-by,” the report notes, stating that similar thefts are occurring in public car parks and at offices, grocery stores and cinemas.

The report also explains why organized crime is turning to vehicle theft: it is incredibly financially profitable for every “player”, small and large, in the criminal enterprise “chain”. And CSIS itself describes them, these “actors”, explaining their role and tracing a sort of “organization chart” of the criminal groups.

Each group generally has two levels: a lower level and a higher level, each of which typically includes three “actors”. The lower level includes: spotters (those who travel residential streets, shopping centers and parking lots looking for vehicles: they can monitor and track vehicles with clandestine GPS trackers that they install in cars); the thieves (young delinquents who steal the car, earning between $500 and $1,500 per vehicle) and the driver (a young man recruited to drive a stolen vehicle to an export location, such as the Port of Montreal). The upper level includes: the facilitator (the intermediary who coordinates the types, models and quantities of vehicles to be stolen); the buyer (a criminal offshore or located in Canada who requests and buys stolen vehicles before reselling them abroad) and the exporter (who coordinates the shipping and delivery of stolen vehicles abroad). These actors could use legitimate companies or create new ones using fake documents and phony company officials to facilitate shipments of two vehicles each in containers, earning $50,000 per load. On the back end, higher-tier offshore sellers can resell stolen Canadian vehicles overseas at prices equal to their full market price in the United States, in U.S. currency.

“The profit margin is huge … and we’ve heard of areas where they’re getting almost double the value of a Canadian car” Inspector Scott Wade, deputy director of the provincial anti-theft squad of OPP, told Global News. “Stealing a dozen cars, trafficking them and shipping them overseas, well, the potential profit could be hundreds of thousands of dollars” he added.

At the end of June, Toronto Police said there had been 149 carjackings in Toronto in 2024 (up to that month), an 86% increase over last year, as well as 71 home invasions where a vehicle was stolen. The phenomenon, therefore, continues to grow. And the risk, now, is that it will degenerate: the CSIS report notes, in fact, that the driver of the car targeted by the thieves “could also be at risk of extortion and robbery” if he is not made to get out of the vehicle and let go by the members of the “gang” on duty. A terrifying experience, frequent in some countries such as Brazil and South Africa and now risking arriving in Canada.

Photo by Bastian Pudill on Unsplash