The Provincial Carjacking Joint Task Force recovered 177 stolen vehicles worth over $10 million within six months!
The Provincial Carjacking Joint Task Force, led by Toronto Police and the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), has made 124 arrests, filed 749 criminal charges, and recovered 177 stolen vehicles worth over $10 million within six months. The task force has been targeting violent vehicle-related crimes in and around Toronto and, from September 2023 to March 2024, it made significant arrests and recoveries, as highlighted by Toronto Police Deputy Chief Robert Johnson during a June 25 press conference.
“Yet again, auto theft remains one of the top revenue generators for organized crime, and this challenge requires a collective effort. Although this joint task force has concluded, our commitment remains unwavering”, Deputy Chief Johnson said.
At the press conference, OPP Deputy Commissioner Marty Kearns noted that the information gathered by the task force led to Project Titanium, an investigation into a criminal organization involved in violent car thefts and home invasions. He also pointed out that the arrests from Project Titanium contributed to the task force’s overall success, effectively dismantling the criminal network.
“Vehicle crime is a complex issue, but one thing is simple: Our communities deserve to feel safe when they lay their heads down at night. It is the right of every Ontarian to feel at ease in their communities”, Dep.-Comm. Kearns said.
Project Titanium
OPP Detective-Inspector Scott Wade explained that the investigation linked the criminal network to armed home invasions, car thefts, carjackings, store robberies, and other burglaries. Project Titanium connected the criminal organization to over 100 crimes, including 21 home invasions and three carjackings. Last week, search warrants in Toronto and Peel Region led to 103 charges against eight individuals. The operation also recovered 23 stolen vehicles worth around $5 million and seized various items, including a loaded Glock 17, ammunition, $2,000 in cash, auto theft tools, money counters, fake IDs, and ski masks.
“What is alarming about this investigation is that the vehicle thefts were not simply carried out in the middle of the night on an unoccupied target vehicle. Many of the thefts involve violence, some with forceful entry into homes with demands that the owners hand over the keys to their vehicles”, Det.-Insp. Wade said.
Repeat Offenders
Deputy Chief Johnson pointed out a troubling trend of repeat offenders and young offenders in auto theft. Of the 124 individuals arrested, 44% were out on bail at the time, and 61% of them were released on bail again.
“Another interesting stat… 36 out of the 124 individuals arrested – that’s 30 percent – they were young offenders”, Deputy Chief Johnson noted, while also shedding a light on the fact that 47% of them were reoffenders.
He explained that the main incentive for young people to engage in vehicle theft is the low risk and high reward, and expressed frustration with the statistics on repeat offenders, suggesting that a lack of consequences might be encouraging the thefts.
“It’s a lucrative business fuelled by organized crime, and there’s a lot of money to be made relatively quickly. We bring offenders before the court, and then there’s another system that takes over… and the decision sometimes, to our frustration, is that those folks are released. Thankfully, in this country, people are given a second chance. But when it’s multiple times, it is frustrating for sure”, he said.