A 19-year-old man and a 15-year-old male have been arrested and charged in the shooting at the U.S. consulate building in Toronto last week, a case police investigators have tied to wider gun-for-hire networks targeting the diplomatic office for a second time in four months.

Toronto police Chief Myron Demkiw announced the charges during a Thursday news conference and said the arrests were made with the help of the RCMP and international law-enforcement counterparts, including the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“I said at the time that our pursuit of those responsible would be relentless,” he told reporters.

On Saturday, Xen-Ul-Abdeen, 19, was arrested and is facing 15 charges including an attack on premises of internationally protected persons. The 15-year-old, arrested Wednesday, cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. He is facing 17 charges.

On July 27, police said the two accused allegedly drove a white Honda Accord with no licence plates past the U.S. consulate just before 5 a.m. and fired at the building, damaging the façade but causing no reported injuries.

Surveillance footage played during the news conference showed the shooters fired twice from the vehicle. However, only one bullet struck the diplomatic office, police said.

Toronto police say two suspects, one of them a minor, have been arrested and charged in last week's shooting at the U.S. consulate.

The Canadian Press

Mr. Demkiw said the incident fit a similar “modus operandi” as the previous U.S. consulate shooting earlier this year and alleged the accused were recruited by a gun-for-hire network.

In March, two people shot at the consulate building in what police later alleged was part of a gun-for-hire network. An officer was killed last month during a police raid targeting suspects in that case.

The accused in the July attack communicated and were offered payment via encrypted messaging apps, he said. Police know of multiple criminal networks hiring gunmen operating in Toronto.

Mr. Demkiw didn’t provide details on how much the accused were offered, who was paying them or which messaging apps they used, saying it’s a “key focus” of the investigation.

Police previously said the networks use apps like WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal, and shooters must record the attacks to get payment.

Chief Superintendent of Detective Operations Joe Matthews said during the news conference that in many circumstances, the shooters involved in the network aren’t being paid.

“What I can say for what these two people are facing, and the potential jail, and how it’s going to impact their future, it’s not nearly enough,” he said.

U.S. prosecutors and the FBI have previously linked the March consulate shooting to Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, allegedly an Iraqi terrorist with ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He was arrested in Turkey in May and remains in U.S. custody.

Mr. Matthews said he couldn’t provide details on any connections from the July attack to that arrest.

During the July consulate shooting investigation, police also identified an alleged arson that both suspects were tied to, he said.