A 40-year-old Canadian man from Brampton, Varinder Dhillon, is facing a series of criminal charges after allegedly stealing millions of dollars worth of disaster relief aid intended for Hurricane Melissa recovery efforts in Jamaica, Peel Regional Police announced in an official statement Thursday.
According to investigative records, the alleged heist unfolded just before 5:30 a.m. on December 3, 2025, at a secured commercial storage facility located at the intersection of Derry Road East and Goreway Drive in Mississauga, Ontario. Authorities allege that Dhillon, who was already on probation for nearly identical theft offenses and subject to a permanent driving ban at the time of the incident, broke into the locked storage compound. Once inside, he used a heavy transport truck to hitch a trailer holding a shipping container fully stocked with donated relief supplies, then drove away from the site undetected.
The stolen cargo consisted of donated clothing and non-perishable food and hygiene items, all collected specifically to support Jamaican communities recovering in the wake of Hurricane Melissa. Following the theft, investigators from the Peel Regional Police Commercial Auto Crime Bureau launched a wide-ranging probe to track down the stolen goods and identify the responsible party.
Through meticulous investigative work, law enforcement named Dhillon as the prime suspect and executed a search warrant at his Brampton residence on March 11. The search led directly to Dhillon’s arrest, and investigators recovered more than CA$1 million worth of stolen relief supplies – equivalent to roughly J$115.2 million. All recovered property was returned to the original relief organization that had collected the donations, and has since been shipped to Kingston, Jamaica, where it is slated to be distributed to communities impacted by the storm.
Dhillon faces multiple criminal counts, including breaking and entering, theft of property valued over CA$5,000, possession of property obtained through criminal activity, and multiple counts of probation violation. He remains in police custody as his case moves through the Canadian court system.