One day last spring, Peel police Det. Mark Haywood executed a search warrant on a property west of Toronto and found a semi-trailer loaded with snowmobiles.
“Seeing an entire container full of brand new Ski-Doos valued at, like, $24,000 (each) — that’s a pretty good recovery for our unit,” said Haywood, who heads the force’s cargo theft team.
Part of a sweeping joint investigation called Project Big Rig, the operation resulted in the arrest of 15 suspects and recovery of 28 trailers stocked with $7 million worth of items ranging from chicken to televisions to Sleeman beer.
“Cargo theft definitely is on the rise,” Haywood said in an interview.
The spike in freight crime comes in lockstep with a ramp-up of more sophisticated, digitally savvy tactics that revolve around identity theft and drain the …