Alleged ringleader of massive grandparents scam operation in Montreal arrested by RCMP

The alleged ringleader of a sophisticated grandparents scam has been arrested in Quebec and could face extradition to the United States to face charges.

Gareth West, 38, was among the 25 Canadians charged by U.S. authorities who alleged the accused defrauded several seniors in Vermont and 40 other states.

On social media, West presents himself as a wealthy Montreal real estate investor, but if the allegations are true, much of his money was really coming from an elaborate scheme to defraud people of more than USD $21 million.

When U.S. authorities announced the charges in March, West, a 38-year-old resident of Burlington, Ont., was one of two people still on the lam. The RCMP confirmed to CTV News that he was arrested last Friday in St-Colomban, Que., about 65 kilometres north of Montreal in the Laurentians region, and did not resist arrest. He appeared in court on Saturday and again on Monday. West and four other co-accused are also accused of conspiring to commit money laundering.

He is currently being held at the Rivière-des-Prairies detention centre pending a request for extradition to the United States from the Department of Homeland Security.

The indictment alleged that the co-accused worked out of call centres in Pointe-Claire, on Montreal’s West Island, and in Vaudreuil-Dorion, west of downtown Montreal. They were raided by Quebec provincial police on June 4, 2024.

Some of the accused would pose as relatives in urgent legal trouble and in need of quick bail money from their victims. Others would pose as fake lawyers who would tell the elderly victims that there was a “gag order” in place preventing them from telling anyone about the emergency situation.

West, who also goes by the aliases “Buddy” and “Muscles,” and his associates “led a transnational criminal enterprise with the sole intent of defrauding hundreds of retirees of their life savings by preying on their emotions and deceiving them into thinking that their loved ones were in peril,” according to Thomas Demeo, acting special agent in charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation’s (IRS-CI) Boston field office.

West and four other co-accused are also accused of conspiring to commit money laundering. If convicted, he faces up to 40 years in prison.

The grandparents’ scam was carried out between the summer of 2021 and June 2024, allegedly stealing millions of dollars per year. The money was then transferred and converted to Canadian dollars “for use in Canada.”

Grandparent scams alone cost Canadians a reported $3.3 million every year, according to Jeff Horncastle, a fraud expert and spokesperson for the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC). He says that’s just the tip of the iceberg, as the CAFC estimates only five to 10 per cent of fraud gets reported.

“We discuss scams, in general, how they come from overseas for the most part. But this proves that it’s not always the case,” he said. “And highlights the importance of reporting to your local law enforcement and to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.”

West is due back in court on July 17.