20 million Pearson gold heist likely a professional job, experts say

The theft of $20 million in gold and other high-end items from Pearson International Airport was likely a well-planned professional job and if authorities don’t get the gold back quickly, it’s likely gone forever.

That’s the opinion of a criminology professor and a former professional criminal who did prison time for his role in Canada’s biggest securities heist.

“Obviously, there were people on both ends,” Melvin Mingo said in a telephone interview from Quebec. Mingo got a nine-year prison term for robbery and forcible confinement for his role in what is considered the largest holdup in Canadian history — a $68.5 million bond and securities heist at the Merrill Lynch Canada Inc. headquarters in downtown Montreal in 1984.

Mingo said the Pearson Airport heist could have been done by a small team, and would have definitely required a broker who knew details of the shipment passing through the airport — “somebody who knows what’s going on at the airport.”