Alberta police crack down on ‘sophisticated’ car theft ring linked to violent organized crime, Edmonton homicide

Criminals are stealing brand-new vehicles from central Alberta dealerships and using them in organized crime or selling them to be exported abroad.

That’s what a three-month investigation by Alberta RCMP’s auto theft unit has concluded.

Two suspects have been arrested and $500,000 in stolen vehicles have been recovered.

“This investigation has uncovered an active organized crime group securing large amounts of stolen vehicles and property which are being utilized and serious organized crimes and or sold with the intent of exportation outside of Canada,” Alberta RCMP Supt. Michael McCauley, the officer in charge of crime reduction strategies, told CityNews.

Police say they have linked two of the stolen vehicles to crimes in Edmonton: the murder of 32-year-old Mohamed Abdi in Evansdale in April and a shooting in north Edmonton in March.

RCMP say investigators first identified a trend of brand-new Ford Explorers being stolen from dealerships.

“The thefts were sophisticated as the suspects were programming new keys for the vehicles then the vehicles were driven off dealership lots with both sets of keys accounted for,” Alberta RCMP said in a news release Thursday. “It was discovered that the Ford Explorers and numerous other vehicles were being re-vinned, registered in Alberta with fraudulent VIN numbers, and used in numerous serious and violent crimes.”

One of those was a 2023 GMC Acadia AT4 that police believe was involved in Abdi’s fatal shooting near 94 Street and 145 Avenue on April 2. Officers arrived on scene early that morning to find Abdi dead inside a truck. Edmonton police are still investigating.

Another was a vehicle linked to a March 30 shooting in the Mycroft Townhouses in the Beaumaris neighbourhood.

“During the investigation into this crime group, RCMP recovered documentation which identified many other potential stolen and re-vinned vehicles that police believed were in circulation,” the RCMP news release reads. “RCMP flagged these VINs with the Canadian Police Information Centre which have been seized by RCMP and other police agencies in Canada.”

RCMP say they executed search warrants in the Edmonton area and recovered, in addition to the GMC Acadia, multiple stolen vehicles: seven Ford Explorers, four Ford F350s, a Toyota Rav4; four trailers, and two snowmobiles.

They say they also seized devices capable of programming vehicle keys, a radio frequency detector for locating GPS trackers in vehicles, cocaine, fentanyl, MDMA and methamphetamine.

Two vehicles set to be exported from Canada were seized at the Port of Vancouver, and another one was seized by York Regional Police, according to police.

Police have made two arrests: Lacombe resident Quinn Richard Olson, 48, and Lac Saint Anne County resident William Blackwood, 47. They are facing multiple charges. A 25-year-old woman from Red Deer is wanted by police.

The RCMP auto theft unit says it has been working with vehicle manufactures to prevent future thefts.

“It’s relatively new and becoming more prevalent,” said Supt. McCauley. “Obviously the modernization of vehicles and their systems, criminals have to catch up to that modernization, and have done so to a degree. So we’re working diligently with auto theft manufacturers to try and identify the vulnerabilities in their systems in order to hopefully find ways to counteract that.”

–With files from Laura Krause