{"id":396584,"date":"2026-01-07T02:50:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T02:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/396584\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T02:50:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T02:50:16","slug":"men-charged-over-alleged-international-car-theft-syndicate-targeting-toyota-landcruisers-and-prados","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/396584\/","title":{"rendered":"Men charged over alleged international car theft syndicate targeting Toyota LandCruisers and Prados"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group of foreign nationals have been charged after allegedly flying into Brisbane as part of an organised operation targeting the theft of four-wheel drives to be shipped overseas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Queensland Police said 60 Toyota LandCruisers and Prados worth about $9 million were stolen in the Brisbane region between October 20 and December 1.<\/p>\n

“Police allege in October last year a group of foreign nationals flew into Brisbane and commenced an organised operation targeting the theft of certain brands of Toyota models, including LandCruisers and Prados,” Detective Inspector Paul Dalton\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

\"Vehicle<\/p>\n

Police found two allegedly stolen Toyota LandCruisers concealed by other car parts in shipping containers. (Supplied: Queensland Police Service)<\/p>\n

Police will further allege the syndicate sent a number of shipping containers with the stolen vehicles inside from Brisbane to the United Arab Emirates to be sold for profit as second-hand vehicles.<\/p>\n

In November police established Operation Xray Lox in response to a spike in vehicle thefts.<\/p>\n

Detective Inspector Dalton said a crime scene was established at a Rocklea wrecking yard on December 2 where officers found two allegedly stolen LandCruisers in a shipping container, which had been concealed behind other motor vehicle parts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Over the following week, another two shipping containers were seized from the Port of Brisbane, with four vehicles recovered.<\/p>\n

On 12 December, a further four shipping containers were located in Melbourne with the assistance of Australian Border Force.<\/p>\n

\"Allegedly<\/p>\n

Police say 15 of the allegedly stolen vehicles have been recovered, (Supplied: Queensland Police Service)<\/p>\n

“This was a highly organised, well-disciplined and very sophisticated international syndicate that was operating in the greater Brisbane area,” Detective Inspector Dalton said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They were targeting\u00a0the theft of vehicles for their own personal gain.”<\/p>\n

The seven men, from countries including Brasil, Fiji, Japan and Afghanistan have been charged with more than 380 offences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Detective Acting Inspector Russell Joyce said police would allege the companies that were moving the shipping containers were doing so legitimately and without the knowledge of what was inside.<\/p>\n

Detective Acting Inspector Joyce\u00a0said investigations were continuing into why Brisbane was targeted.<\/p>\n

“I don’t believe we were necessarily a soft target, I believe we were an opportunity,” he said.<\/p>\n

Police have recovered 15 of the vehicles and continue to work to locate the remaining 45 vehicles which they believe are no longer in the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Four of the men, aged 45, 44, 40 and 29, have each been charged with 60 counts of stealing of a vehicle, and six counts of attempted stealing of a vehicle. They were all remanded in custody.<\/p>\n

\"Shipping<\/p>\n

Police allege the syndicate sent a number of shipping containers with whole vehicles in them from Brisbane to the United Arab Emirates. (Supplied: Queensland Police Service)<\/p>\n

A 28-year-old man has been charged with 17 counts of stealing of a vehicle and was remanded in custody, while a 31-year-old man has been charged with 32 counts of stealing of a vehicle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A 40-year-old man has been charged with two counts of stealing of a vehicle.<\/p>\n

The are all due to appear in court later this month.<\/p>\n

4WD taken ‘in a matter of seconds’<\/p>\n

Kali Hodge had her LandCruiser 300 Series stolen from her driveway in Cleveland, on Brisbane’s bayside, in November.<\/p>\n

The mother of two said the thieves drilled into the side of the vehicle to gain access while the family was asleep inside their home.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kali Hodge\u00a0says her Toyota LandCruiser was stolen from her driveway in November. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“It was all over in a matter of seconds, they stole it in less than a minute,” she said.<\/p>\n

CCTV footage shows a pair arriving at the home on Coburg Street East in Cleveland, just before midnight on November 20.<\/p>\n

A drill was used to gain access to the Toyota’s electric system before the duo pushed the car out of the driveway and made off with it, Ms Hodge says.<\/p>\n

“We worked so hard for that car, to lose it like that was just devastating,” Ms Hodge said.<\/p>\n

Ms Hodge’s LandCruiser, worth more than $120,000, has been recovered.<\/p>\n

“We got a call from a detective in Victoria, he told us they’d found our car in a shipping container at the port in Melbourne,” Ms Hodge said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of foreign nationals have been charged after allegedly flying into Brisbane as part of an organised…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[58039,43,44,94,4106,211471,41,39,42,40,96705,58082],"class_list":["post-396584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-car-theft","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-qld","tag-queensland-police","tag-stolen-cars","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-toyota-landcruiser","tag-toyota-prado"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}