Based on coverage from CBC, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, CP24, and National Post.
Durante King-Mclean, the man Peel Regional Police allege was the getaway driver in the April 2023 gold heist at Toronto Pearson International Airport, has been sentenced in the United States to more than 13 years in federal prison for trying to smuggle a large stash of handguns into Canada.
U.S. prosecutors say King-Mclean, 27, pleaded guilty to conspiring to illegally traffic firearms. A U.S. judge in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, handed him a 160-month sentence on Tuesday.
U.S. sentencing in Pennsylvania federal court
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, the case that led to King-Mclean’s sentence began with a traffic stop on Sept. 2, 2023, by Pennsylvania State Police. Prosecutors say King-Mclean tried to run after being stopped, but was caught after a brief chase.
Police then searched the vehicle and found 65 handguns, with each gun concealed in a sock, U.S. authorities say. One report adds extra details about that seizure: two of the guns were fully automatic, 11 were reported stolen, and one had an obliterated serial number.
U.S. officials say King-Mclean was travelling north toward Canada at the time.
What police say about 65 smuggled handguns
The American case is framed as a firearms-trafficking conspiracy, not a simple border offence. In a statement included in the U.S. release, an ATF official in Philadelphia said firearms trafficking fuels violent crime on both sides of the border, and pointed to the length of the sentence as a sign of how seriously the court took it.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office also says King-Mclean had been communicating with co-conspirators from April 2023 onward, up to his arrest in September 2023.
Pearson Airport gold heist allegations in Ontario
Canadian authorities, meanwhile, have tied King-Mclean to one of the biggest cargo thefts in recent memory.
Peel Regional Police allege King-Mclean was driving a white van that pulled away from an Air Canada cargo building at Pearson on April 17, 2023, after thieves obtained a cargo shipment and made off with gold and cash.
Police have said the stolen shipment included about 400 kilograms of gold, valued at more than $20 million at the time, plus roughly $2.5 million in foreign currency. Another account describes the take as 6,600 gold bars, along with cash.
King-Mclean has been described as being from Ontario, and one report identifies him as a Brampton man.
Timeline from Florida Airbnb to Canada route
U.S. authorities say King-Mclean was renting an Airbnb in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, then rented a vehicle in late August 2023 and drove north. They also allege he entered and remained in the U.S. illegally shortly after the Pearson heist, staying there until the September traffic stop as he headed back toward Canada.
Peel police have alleged the guns found in the U.S. were likely bought with proceeds from the Pearson gold heist.
Extradition questions for Canadian charges
What happens next on the Canadian side is still murky. Multiple reports say it’s unclear whether King-Mclean will be extradited to Canada to face charges connected to the Pearson heist.
For Canadians, the immediate bottom line is that one of the central names linked to the Pearson theft is now locked into a lengthy U.S. federal sentence for alleged gun trafficking, while the Canadian gold-heist case remains unresolved.
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