Cargo Theft

Freight theft is centuries old; the digital fictitious-pickup version emerged on US load boards around 2019, and the first large sentenced case was Aivaras Zigmantas's $10.1 million Chicago scheme.

Stealing freight in transit dates to highwaymen and train robbers, and organised truck hijacking was a mainstay of US and European organised crime through the 20th century (the 1978 Lufthansa heist at JFK was a cargo theft). The modern shift is 'strategic' theft: since about 2019 crews use stolen or fake carrier identities on digital load boards to get freight assigned to them (fictitious pickups), double-broker loads and redirect shipments, so no lock is broken. Verisk CargoNet recorded a 60% jump in losses in 2025 as groups targeted high-value loads.

In physical theft, crews follow loaded trailers from ports or distribution centres and steal them at truck stops or unattended lots, or burgle warehouses. In strategic theft, a fraudster registers or hijacks a motor-carrier identity (MC number), bids for loads on online boards, sends a real or complicit driver to collect the freight with valid paperwork, then diverts it to their own warehouse. Goods (electronics, copper, liquor, food) are sold within days through wholesalers or online. Double-brokering, where a load is resold to an unknowing carrier and the payment kept, is a related fraud.

Physical theft needs crews and warehouses; strategic theft needs only a hijacked carrier identity and a load-board login, and one diverted trailer can be worth $250,000 or more. CargoNet says organised groups are becoming more selective, and because freight crosses jurisdictions and insurers absorb losses, most incidents are never solved or charged.

Verisk CargoNet estimated $725 million in losses across the US and Canada in 2025, a 60% rise, though it counts only reported incidents; no government publishes an official total. The largest sentenced case is Zigmantas's $10.1 million. Drivers have been assaulted, as in the Palmer robbery, and stolen food and pharmaceuticals re-enter supply chains unrefrigerated.