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An uptick in international organized crime groups smuggling stolen vehicles from the Motor City to countries in the Middle East is alarming law enforcement officials looking to crack down on the thefts, as experts say criminals are leveraging juveniles to do their dirty work.
In September, eight men were indicted in federal court for allegedly operating a car theft and international smuggling operation in Detroit, Michigan, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan said in a news release.
According to the 12-count indictment, the eight suspects conspired among themselves and others to coordinate the deliveries of stolen vehicles at one of four commercial or industrial lots throughout the Detroit metropolitan area. Once the vehicles were delivered, prosecutors said the men would pack at least two of the stolen vehicles into shipping containers and send them to nearby port cities by freight or rail.
Once the containers arrived at the various port cities, the containers transporting the cars would allegedly be shipped overseas.
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“A lot of the cars were shipped to the Middle East,” Dearborn Police Cpl. Daniel Bartok told FOX 2, including locations like Iraq and Dubai.
The suspects have been identified as Haydar Al Haydari, 41, of Garden City; Karar Alnakash, 43, of Detroit; Abbas Al Othman, 42; of Dearborn Heights; Mohammed Al Hilo, 36, of Detroit; Moustapha Al Fetlawi, 46, of Dearborn Heights; Terrill Davis, 33, of Detroit; David Roshinsky Williams, 32, of Harper Woods; and Mohammed Al Abboodi, 35, of Detroit, according to federal prosecutors.
All eight men are charged with one count of conspiracy to transport stolen vehicles and one or more counts of transportation of a stolen vehicle, prosecutors said.
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“Our efforts have led to the recovery of over 350 stolen vehicles and behind every one of those stolen cars is a victim,” ICE HSI Detroit acting Special Agent in Charge Matthew Stentz said in a statement. “Our HSI special agents and law enforcement partners will continue to do the work necessary to take down these operations that harm everyday Americans.”
The recent indictment is merely the latest in what has become a surge in vehicle thefts throughout Michigan in recent years.
In 2023, the state saw 28,408 reported cases of motor vehicle thefts, according to the Michigan Department of Attorney General. The uptick marked a 4.1% increase in thefts when compared to the previous year, and a 48.4% spike when compared to data from the past five years.
The Michigan Department of Attorney General did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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“I think any large metropolitan area has some auto theft issues,” Kyle McPhee, a stolen vehicle identification specialist and retired detective sergeant with the Michigan State Police, told Fox News Digital. “Detroit happens to be a port city. You can put something in a shipping container and it can be at a port in no time.”
Organized crime groups will often swipe vehicles from a manufacturer’s lot or ones simply parked on the street, with some criminals recruiting juveniles due to the less harsh legal penalties for minors, according to McPhee.
“They’ll pay juveniles very little to go out and bring these vehicles back to wherever they’re going to cool them off,” McPhee said. “They’ll remove any tracking devices and they might cut the vehicle up so they can put it in a shipping container and call it ‘auto parts.’ Then when it gets to its destination, they might reassemble it.”
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Once a shipping container arrives at port, McPhee said criminals will often fabricate the manifest logs to fool officials regarding its contents.
“They’ll say ‘household goods,’ and there might be five cars in there and two mattresses,” McPhee added.
The process makes it nearly impossible for authorities to verify the contents of each of the millions of containers passing through each port every year, with organized crime groups within the United States often coordinating with international criminals, according to McPhee.
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“They have backscatter machines and x-rays that look into the shipping containers, but you’re talking about a million shipping containers on some of these ports are tough,” McPhee said. “It’s a tough duty. You have to also be careful of what’s coming into the country, and now we have to look at what’s going out.”
The rise in vehicle thefts throughout Michigan has led state officials to create the Auto Fraud Task Force (AFTF) earlier this year.
The unit combats both auto insurance fraud and large-scale criminal auto theft operations within Metro Detroit by partnering with various law enforcement agencies throughout the area, according to the Michigan Department of Attorney General.
“With the rise of auto thefts across our communities, expanding the Auto Fraud Task Force is an important step to strengthen our fight against both vehicle theft and insurance fraud, crimes that impact far too many Michigan residents each year,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement. “Through this new structure, we are enhancing our efforts to dismantle these sophisticated, organized auto crime enterprises across our state.”
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As authorities race to track down stolen vehicles before they are loaded onto shipping containers, while also investigating how criminal groups on American soil are working with international crime organizations, McPhee insisted there is one key component in what is driving the uptick in vehicle thefts throughout Michigan.
“The one key connection is somebody’s getting paid,” McPhee told Fox News Digital. “There’s money to be made. So if you have a local organized gang, they can be connected internationally to another group very easily. We have the internet, it’s not hard.”
