Halton Regional Police say they have disrupted a group believed to be responsible for the theft of at least 40 vehicles in Halton Region and the Greater Toronto Area worth over $3 million.

The vehicles were stolen from the GTA and were destined to be shipped overseas, police say.

The investigation started in May after a stolen Toyota Tundra from Hamilton was recovered in a residential area in Burlington.

“Through an extensive canvas following the recovery of this Tundra, a suspect vehicle was subsequently identified,” Det. Phil Vandenbeukel told reporters.

That suspect vehicle led police to a rented home in the GTA, which kicked off several months of surveillance and further investigation.

“Through surveillance and various investigative avenues, individuals were identified along with additional suspect vehicles,” Vandenbeukel said. “These individuals would frequently travel back and forth from Quebec to the GTA and often change locations of their short term rentals.”

While in Ontario, the group targeted newer model high-end vehicles – mainly Toyota Tundras and Lexus RX 350 SUVs that were parked overnight in private driveways, police said.

The suspects would damage the rear passenger windows of the vehicles and then reprogram blank key fobs to steal to steal them, Vandenbeukel said.

Vehicles transported in fake RV, sea containers

“Through surveillance, the group was observed transporting the stolen vehicles to the Port of Montreal a number of different ways,” he said. “These methods included loading them onto sea containers, and on several occasions, loading them into the toy hauler RV.”

Police showed off the recovered “toy hauler RV” outside of police headquarters Wednesday. The RV resembles a normal camper on the outside, but the inside has been gutted – allegedly to allow a car to be driven inside and concealed for transport to a shipping port.

“All of these stolen vehicles were destined to be shipped overseas,” Vandenbeukel said.

He said police spotted a stolen vehicle being loaded into the gutted RV at an industrial complex in Scarborough on the evening of July 24, and officers then moved in to execute a traffic stop with the assistance of Ontario Provincial Police.

Police charged the driver for trafficking stolen property over $5,000 and other auto-related offences.

Further investigation over the next month led police to more suspects in Toronto and Oshawa

Police say they have brought 55 charges against eight suspects in the investigation so far. Four of them have been taken into custody, while four others are wanted on Canada-wide warrants.

Suspects came to Ontario to steal cars: police

The suspects, police said, are Algerian nationals who are lawful residents of Quebec.

“We're currently working with CBSA to determine more about their status. They are lawfully in Canada, residing in Quebec, and we do believe that they came to Ontario for the sole purpose of committing vehicle thefts,” Detective Constable Autumn Mills said.

So far 12 of the stolen vehicles have been recovered, but police say they expect more will be recovered as the investigation progresses.

“We believe this group is responsible for additional vehicles, vehicle thefts not yet linked to them, and as such, our investigation is ongoing,” Vandenbeukel said.

He urged anyone with further information to contact investigators or to call Crime Stoppers anonymously.