That\u2019s because of a new twist on an old idea: there is plenty of money to be made from stealing goods in transit. But it\u2019s no longer about just looting cartons of cigarettes or pallets of laundry detergent and energy drinks.<\/p>\n
High-value computer chips and AI server hardware have become prime targets for organised cargo theft rings across the United States. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Thieves today are targeting the pricey computer parts driving the artificial intelligence (AI) and tech booms, snatching high-speed RAM modules, advanced computer chips and server racks as they flow toward the data centres and related industries popping up across the country. The thieves are also using increasingly sophisticated means to pull off their heists.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a push-pull thing \u2013 whatever is being pulled through the supply chain at high speed, that\u2019s what the bad guys are stealing,\u201d Keith Lewis of CargoNet said. \u201cRight now, we\u2019re seeing a chip shortage and the emergence of AI data centres.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Lewis helped out with a case involving the recovery of a US$100m computer component used in chip manufacturing. Police stumbled upon it during a search warrant raid in California. The component had been stolen off a truck trailer so recently that the freight broker \u201cdidn\u2019t even know about the theft yet\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
Last month, a trailer carrying a US$1.5m shipment of computer graphics cards destined for Columbus, Ohio, vanished from Fullerton, California, according to an internal industry Bolo (be on the lookout) report. In December, a trailer with a US$3.1m load of hard drives disappeared before it reached Mesa, Arizona, home to data centres run by companies such as Meta. And last summer, a nearly US$200,000 shipment of Nvidia chips was stolen in Fremont, California by a group of thieves that police believe specialised in high-value computer parts.<\/p>\n
Millions of dollars in technology components move daily across US highways, creating lucrative opportunities for sophisticated cargo theft operations. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing a consistent number of investigations coming to us for follow-up,\u201d Sergeant Andrew Barclay of the California Highway Patrol, which has a special cargo theft unit, said.<\/p>\n
The true scale of America\u2019s cargo theft problem is hard to get a handle on. There\u2019s no official definition of cargo theft \u2013 it might be categorised in some places as a stolen vehicle or it could be stolen property. Manufacturers and the trucking industry often are reluctant to discuss cases in detail because they involve so many different parties \u2013 shippers, brokers, distributors and insurance companies among them. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of finger-pointing,\u201d Lewis said.<\/p>\n
Losses are probably 10 to 15 times higher than the official count, Scott Cornell, a transportation risk analyst and chairman of the Transported Asset Protection Association, said.<\/p>\n
Cornell\u2019s group is among the trade organisations pushing for cargo theft to get more attention from federal authorities under a proposed law targeting organised retail theft, such as co-ordinated shoplifting scams. Last summer, at a Senate judiciary committee hearing on the bill, trucking logistics executive Donna Lemm said companies hit by cargo thefts are \u201creluctant to speak up and put a larger target on their back\u201d. Others fear reputational harm, she said.<\/p>\n
Lemm also pointed out that the losses from cargo thefts increase prices for consumers.<\/p>\n
Cargo thieves began targeting tech products soon after the pandemic, officials say. That used to mean flat-screen monitors and TVs. Then it was crypto-mining rigs, iPhones and computer gaming setups.<\/p>\n
Now, it\u2019s AI.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bad guys keep on top of what\u2019s popular,\u201d Cornell said.<\/p>\n
When egg prices soared last year, thieves appeared to respond. About 100,000 eggs valued at US$40,000 were stolen out of a trailer in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, in February 2025. Two months later, a shipment of 280,000 eggs disappeared from a farm in Warwick, Maryland.<\/p>\n
Then egg prices fell. So did the egg thefts.<\/p>\n
Distribution centres shipping technology components are increasingly targeted as organised criminal groups exploit vulnerabilities in supply chains. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Technology makes for a better target than just about any other product right now, whether it\u2019s eggs or diapers or Nike Air Jordans, Danny Ramon of Overhaul, a supply chain security firm, said.<\/p>\n
Thieves, Ramon said, are \u201creally focused on cost density\u201d.<\/p>\n
One cargo thief ring in the Midwest targeted distribution facilities for companies such as Meta and Microsoft, conducting surveillance and following the trucks as they drove off, federal prosecutors said. The group then stole the loaded tractor-trailers when the drivers stopped to refuel or rest. They abandoned the stolen trucks nearby, reattaching the trailers to their own trucks and painting over trailer logos and swapping out the licence plates to avoid detection. In January, the last of the six members convicted of crimes related to interstate transportation of stolen property was sentenced to 13-and-a-half years in prison.<\/p>\n
But they were employing old-school tactics.<\/p>\n
Shipping firms have got wise to these kinds of thefts. Now, with high-value loads, it is common for truckers to be instructed to not stop for any reason for the first 200 miles (320km). That\u2019s to make it harder for crews trailing them on the road. Trailers also often have GPS devices and special locks.<\/p>\n
Logistics companies are deploying GPS trackers and specialised locks in an effort to deter increasingly sophisticated cargo theft schemes. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
That hasn\u2019t slowed the new crop of cargo thieves.<\/p>\n
They increasingly rely on sophisticated strategy and deception that, in some cases, results in the goods being gone for hours or days before anyone realises, industry officials say.<\/p>\n
The cargo industry noticed a clear shift in heist tactics in the middle of 2023, with apparent involvement from organised criminal groups with ties to Mexico and Asia, according to an Overhaul report. That might help explain how criminals are able to unload the specialised tech hardware, which is not as easy to sell on the black market as a pair of sneakers.<\/p>\n
The thieves exploit weaknesses in trucking supply chains, creating fake logistics and trucking companies and fraudulent bills of lading, using fictitious pick-ups and insider information to get their hands on multimillion-dollar loads.<\/p>\n
In those cases, everything looks normal until the tractor-trailer fails to turn up at its destination.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s harder to recognise when the cargo just disappears off the grid,\u201d Ramon said.<\/p>\n
In September, a man walked into a shipping company in Salt Lake City posing as a truck driver who was supposed to haul a trailer 13 hours to El Paso.<\/p>\n
Officials don\u2019t know how he inserted himself into the supply chain. But the shipping company didn\u2019t suspect a thing. The fake driver even agreed to his phone being tracked, a common request for high-value loads. His GPS trail went cold about an hour outside El Paso.<\/p>\n
The trailer was discovered days later in Irwindale, California, not far from the Port of Long Beach, one of the world\u2019s busiest shipping ports.<\/p>\n
Gone was the trailer\u2019s load of 40 AI server racks and 108,230 memory modules that are often used in AI data centres, according to an industry Bolo notice.<\/p>\n
The stolen cargo was valued at US$31m.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a big one,\u201d Lewis said.<\/p>\n
The Utah Attorney-General\u2019s Office is investigating.<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That\u2019s because of a new twist on an old idea: there is plenty of money to be made…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[74,192,9218,138,37055,31796,12474,16288,221,78,296,5832,685,101,6093,14733,4380,13893,111,139,69,1118,30205,26525,124843,4744,370,30590,66960,698,26229,18840,12767],"class_list":["post-325650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-after","tag-are","tag-before","tag-business","tag-cargo","tag-deserted","tag-dollars","tag-hardware","tag-how","tag-in","tag-into","tag-july","tag-last","tag-left","tag-little","tag-midnight","tag-millions","tag-nevada","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-parking","tag-pulled","tag-reno","tag-stealing","tag-tech","tag-thief","tag-thieves","tag-until","tag-waited","tag-warehouse","tag-worker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}