Quebec, Ontario organized crime groups boost Western Canada vehicle thefts
Quebec and Ontario organized crime members are travelling to Western Canada to steal valuable vehicles and ship them to Montreal for illicit export sales, a new federal intelligence report says.
“Once generally regarded as a regional issue affecting mainly Ontario and Quebec, vehicle theft has expanded to Western Canada, with Alberta’s number of vehicle thefts now nearing that of Quebec’s, despite an approximately 45% lower population base,” says a report by the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (CISC), an RCMP-led national criminal intelligence agency.
“At least some of the groups targeting these Western urban areas are believed to be from Ontario and Quebec,” adds the report, which was a special six-page strategic assessment of the growing wave of vehicle thefts in Canada tucked at the end of its December 2023 Report on Organized Crime.
Global News obtained a copy informally under the Access to Information Act.
“With the increasing involvement of violent street gangs, law enforcement can expect a continuing rise in violent carjackings to spread to other jurisdictions,” the report warned fellow police agencies.
Ontario and Quebec crime groups are moving west to dodge Eastern police enforcement and because vehicles from Western Canada “are perceived as less likely to have anti-theft protection,” the report adds.
In 2022 and 2023, Alberta reported 24,588 stolen vehicles compared to Quebec’s 29,705 according to data from Équité Association, a not-for-profit, national organization that tracks crime for insurers.
The CISC report notes the larger number of organized crime groups stealing vehicles overall, with street gangs being “the most prevalent,” has led to more carjackings, putting the public at risk.
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