Toronto police nab robbers who made away with $1 million cash in garbage bags

Toronto Police have announced that they've finally charged a group of suspects who robbed more than $1 million from a retail location — and made away with the cash in plastic garbage bags.

Authorities have aptly named the operation Project Heavy Bag, perhaps due to security footage that shows one of the perps struggling to drag their loot away, somewhat hilariously ripping the garbage bag open and dropping money all over the parking lot in the process.

(Given the magnitude of the crime, you'd think the culprits would have come prepared with sturdier receptacles.)

Toronto Police Announce Results of Project Heavy Bag, Three Men and Four Women Arrested in Retail Robbery investigation, Carlingview Drive and Dixon Road area, One Man Wanted, Emmanuel Rawson, 22 https://t.co/Lp0weGv5hQ

— Toronto Police (@TorontoPolice) September 28, 2021

The incident took place back in April at a business near Carlingview Drive and Dixon Road that refills ATMs.

Two men held workers at gunpoint and forced them to grant access to the building, and then to the safes inside before forcing them to the floor.

One of the employees present can be seen being pistol whipped in the surveillance video before the robbers dumped the money onto the floor, loaded it into their clear plastic bags and made their messy escape to a nearby vehicle.

#BREAKING: Toronto Police @TorontoPolice have cracked a MILLION-DOLLAR ROBBERY case. On April 4 2021, near Claringview-Dixon, two armed robbers targeted a retail establishment that is used to refill pvt owned ATMs. They made away with more than $1 mn in GARBAGE bags. Watch 👇 pic.twitter.com/8hIpIDez9c

— Prabhjot Sohal (@PrabSohalTweets) September 28, 2021

The TPS Holdup Squad was eventually able to identify two of the suspects more than a month later after someone attempted to break in to their home, in which cops found "a sum of money identified to have been obtained during the robbery on April 1."

Toronto residents Devante Virgo, 23, and Courtni Martin, 22 were then apprehended and face a total of 15 charges altogether, including robbery with a firearm, unauthorized posession of a firearm and failure to comply with probation.

Further investigation added five more suspects to the mix, both men and women who range from 22 to 37 and face 24 counts collectively between them, including multiple counts of unauthorized posession of a firearm, conspiracy to commit an indictable offence and possession of proceeds of crime over $5,000.

An eighth and final suspect in the crime is still at large: 22-year-old Emmanuel Rawson, of Toronto, who was one of the two seen in the video footage.

He is considered armed and dangerous, and anyone who sees him or has further information on the case is asked to contact police online or call them or Crime Stoppers.