NICB Partners with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to Stop Export of Stolen Vehicles

OAK BROOK, IL, SEPTEMBER 5, 2024 — Rising vehicle theft trends present complex challenges for law enforcement and insurance carriers. The issue of stolen vehicles being exported out of the United States is an especially complex problem with significant implications for law enforcement, public safety, and international relations. However, the sheer volume of goods moving in and out of the country presents a challenge for authorities to identify stolen vehicles among legitimate exports. To help address this problem, the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), the nation's leading not-for-profit organization dedicated to identifying, investigating, preventing, and deterring insurance fraud and crime, is partnering with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as part of “Operation Terminus,” to prevent stolen vehicles from being smuggled out of the country through seaports around the nation.

“NICB is proud to work with partners like U.S. Customs and Border Protection to disrupt transnational criminal networks,” said David J. Glawe, President and CEO of NICB. “These partnerships are critical to the success of identifying and significantly degrading the ability of these criminals to continue their global operations. Addressing this problem requires a coordinated and comprehensive approach involving law enforcement agencies, government authorities, international partners, and industry stakeholders. This is especially important because stolen vehicles that are exported are often repurposed for illicit activities such as smuggling drugs, weapons, or even terrorists across borders.”

Organized crime syndicates often orchestrate the theft and export of vehicles, utilizing sophisticated tactics to evade detection. These criminal networks may alter vehicle identification numbers (VINs), forge documents, or employ other methods to disguise the true origins of stolen vehicles, making it difficult for law enforcement agencies to trace and recover them. NICB has disrupted nearly 2,000 organized criminal networks over the past year and recovered more than 300,000 vehicles, which were valued at hundreds of millions of dollars.

“Our partnership with NICB is critical in our fight against vehicle theft and in disrupting transnational criminal organizations. By working together, we are leveraging our capabilities to deter criminal activities at home and across the globe,” said Diane Sabatino, Customs and Border Protection Acting Executive Assistant Commissioner, Office of Field Operations.

Over the past year, NICB agents, working alongside CBP officers as part of “Operation Terminus,” inspected shipping containers discovering multiple high-end vehicles worth more than $100,000 each, resulting in the seizure of multiple vehicles worth millions of dollars. These seizures occurred at Seaports from New York, Newark, Norfolk, Baltimore south to Savannah and Miami Ports of Entry. Many of the recovered stolen vehicles were bound for several different countries in Africa. Additionally, operations have also recovered hundreds of rounds of various caliber ammunition that were concealed in vehicles destined to Nigeria and other African ports.

“While many stolen vehicles are recovered, there is an increasing global demand particularly in regions where regulations are lax, and stolen goods can be easily laundered or resold on the black market,” Glawe said. “Stopping stolen vehicles from leaving the country requires effective detection and interception measures at various points of exit, including ports, border crossings, and shipping terminals.”

View NICB and CBP in action here.

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