2 youths among 8 charged in connection with smash-and-grab robberies in Ontario, police say

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The Halton Regional Police Service has laid over 50 charges following several smash-and-grab robberies between Jan. 25 and March 17.

The businesses where the robberies took place are in Burlington, Hamilton, St. Catharines, Brantford, Guelph, Waterloo and Barrie.

Eight young people from Toronto, Mississauga and Barrie have been arrested, police said Friday, adding they include two youths. All the accused are 22 or younger.

They were charged in connection with a dozen robberies across the region.

Deputy Chief of Halton police Roger Wilkie said in a statement, “This marks the first major crackdown on smash-and-grab robberies.

“We’ve disrupted an organized group responsible for targeting businesses across the [Greater Toronto Area], and these arrests send a clear message: this type of co-ordinated criminal activity will not be tolerated.”

A man in a police uniform stands in front of a Halton Regional Police Service sign. — Halton police Deputy Chief Roger Wilkie told CBC News the investigation is ongoing. (CBC)

Criminal networks recruit through WhatsApp, Snapchat, police say

Through the investigation, police linked one robbery in January to seven others in Burlington and another 25 across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Wilkie told CBC News. He said Halton police worked with nine other police services to investigate.

Suspects wore “masks and balaclavas to conceal their identities and used hammers to smash display cases before quickly fleeing with stolen jewelry,” the police news release said.

There were no injuries during the robberies, but there was property damage, including when a vehicle was driven into a Buy & Sell store.

Dash-cam footage of a car damaging the entrance of a store. — Police said there were no injuries during the robberies, but in one case, a car drove through the entrance of a Burlington Buy and Sell store. (Halton Regional Police Service)

The crimes also involved stolen vehicles and cloned licence plates, Wilkie said.

He added police believe a network of organizers is arranging vehicles, identifying targets and recruiting would-be robbers. Police say these groups advertise through social media apps like WhatsApp and Snapchat.

Wilkie said they’re looking to identify more people in connection with these robberies as the investigation continues.

Late last year, CBC’s the fifth estate investigated a spike in jewelry store smash-and-grabs in Ontario. It found a growing number of minors were being recruited by adults to carry out the crimes and told that if they are caught, as youths, they would face little or no time in custody.

Police services told CBC then that the number of youths involved in these robberies was unprecedented.