OTTAWA: Canadian police have arrested eight Indian-origin men over mail thefts, including credit cards and cheques, and slapped them with over 300 charges, with some facing deportation, local media reported.
Peel police recovered more than 450 pieces of stolen mail, such as credit cards and cheques, worth more than CAD 400,000, from the suspects, CTV News reported.
“The investigation uncovered a group of individuals working together to target residential mailboxes, resulting in widespread theft and disruption to community members,” the report quoted from a police news release on Friday.
Peel police, Halton police and Canada Post launched a joint operation called “Project Undeliverable” in April to investigate reports of a series of
mail thefts in the region.
“The investigation uncovered a group of individuals working together to target residential mailboxes, resulting in widespread theft and disruption to community members,” police added.
Investigators executed search warrants in September during which 465 pieces of stolen mail, such as 255 cheques, 182 credit cards, 35 government IDs, and 20 gift cards were recovered,the report added.
The police have identified the suspects as Sumanpreet Singh, Gurdeep Chattha, Jashandeep Jattana, Harman Singh, Jasanpreet Singh, Manroop Singh, Rajbir Singh and Upinderjit Singh, it said.
The eight suspects, aged between 21 and 29, are collectively facing 344 charges, including multiple counts of theft and possession of property obtained by crime, the CBC reported on Friday.
The police say they are discussing deportation of some foreign nationals among the accused with the Crown Attorney’s Office and the Canada Border Services Agency.