Shipping Stolen Cars

Recently in the news there was a story about a huge bust at the port of Newark arresting people for shipping out stolen cars in shipping containers. Although this is where the bust was made, the port of Newark was not the only port involved. There were people from all over the United States and even in Mexico moving illegal shipping cargo internationally out of the major ports across the US. Miami, New York, and LA are only some of the ports involved in this huge illegal ring of stolen automobiles. Turns out they were shipping these cars to West Africa where they were sold to local dealers for much less than the original prices.

They caught these individuals by regularly checking for illegal cargo. US Customs would go through and scan the cars and find that there is no VIN# or that the VIN# was removed and then they would look up the person that supposedly owns the car and find out that they do not exist. This operation was going on for awhile since various reports stated that the illegal merchandise was worth close to $6million. Turns out that 19 people have been charged and most of them were directly related to gangs in the US.

Sadly the market for stolen vehicles abroad is growing and the money is being used to further gang activity. These types of operations can affect more than just the car owners since there were so many components. People in the shipping industry are affected greatly since these cars were shipping internationally. More security and more checks will need to be done in the future to avoid these types of illegal activities.