Five people are facing charges in connection to an investigation into stolen vehicles and the fraudulent sale of decommissioned RCMP vehicles. The Alberta RCMP Auto Theft Unit started an investigation into a vehicle theft ring in June 2024 after identifying a person believed to be at the heart of auto theft in the province. Over the course of the investigation, police identified a network of people they say were involved in stealing, re-vinning, reselling, and exporting cars from across Canada, as well as other offences related to organized crime. In July 2025 a person was arrested for offences related to registering fraudulent VINs on stolen vehicles. Police say he had more than 20 fraudulent registrations linked to his name. In November 2025 police discovered that one of the people they were investigating was working for a company that had been contracted earlier that year by a federal agency to dispose of decommissioned RCMP vehicles. Under the contract the company was given 950 RCMP vehicles in the spring of 2025 to destroy. Investigators discovered that the criminal group had received hundreds of the vehicles and exported them or resold them within Canada, despite the fact they were intended for salvage. Between December 2025 and March 2026 multiple search warrants were executed as part of the investigation. Several stolen vehicles were recovered, and more than four million illegal cigarettes with an illicit value of over $1 million were seized. Not including the decommissioned RCMP vehicles, investigators connected more than 80 stolen, fraudulently obtained, or illegally exported vehicles valued at about $6 million to the crime group. Five people are facing a variety of charges including trafficking in property obtained by crime, smuggling, possession of stolen property, theft over $5,000, fraud over $5,000, possession of unstamped tobacco, and money laundering. “This group was responsible for driving a significant portion of the market for stolen vehicles in Alberta over the past several years, impacting insurance rates across the province and causing significant harm to our communities,” Staff Sgt. Luke Halvorson told reporters on Wednesday. “Removing these individuals from the streets will have a positive impact on our communities and deal a significant blow to the criminal enterprise they supported through their activities.” Police were gathering evidence to charge a sixth person who they say initially sparked the investigation, but the man died before charges could be laid. “This individual was heavily involved in organised crime in Canada as well as over a decade, for well over a decade, and died as a result of criminality,” Halvorson said. “Police had gathered evidence and intended to lay numerous charges [against him.]” The Insurance Bureau of Canada says auto crimes like the ones perpetrated by the group cost all drivers. “They see it as a victimless crime, and they see it as an easy crime,” Aaron Sutherland told CTV News Edmonton on Wednesday. “The cost of theft and fraud in the auto insurance system here in Alberta generally is about $50 per driver. So there is a real tangible cost to all of us for the growing incidents of vehicle theft that we’ve seen here in Alberta and right across this country.” “Those [stolen vehicles] will have to be replaced by those auto insurers that were covering those policies, and that adds cost to everybody.” With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nahreman Issa
