Surge in cargo thefts in Southern California driven by swift, organized rings

Southern California, with the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and its robust network of trucking corridors, rail yards and warehouses, has long been fertile ground for cargo theft.

For decades, those crimes were largely physical: thieves broke into semi-trucks, cargo trailers and railcars, hijacked drivers or burglarized warehouses. Those methods still occur, and quite often.

But in the past five years, cargo theft has surged as criminals have grown far more sophisticated and organized, using digital tools to exploit weaknesses in the supply chain and defraud shippers, brokers and carriers. Known in the industry as strategic cargo theft, these schemes often involve organized crime rings that steal or clone Department of Transportation and motor carrier numbers, assume false identities, pose as legitimate brokers, and purchase small companies that are dormant or failing so they can steal millions in freight.

“Every week we’re seeing people doing this. These actors are hacking trucking company emails, they’re buying motor carrier numbers, they buy a $20 placard and put it on their truck. They steal license plates and put them on trucks, then they talk to customers like they’re legitimate,” said Jim Gillis, president of the Pacific Region of IMC Logistics, a U.S. logistics and transportation company.

Blip on the radar

In September, IMC Logistics published a white paper noting cargo theft was barely on the company’s radar before 2021, and that the crimes typically were isolated cases involving lone perpetrators.

But since 2021, thieves have ramped up their criminal activity online, tricking shippers into transport deals under false pretenses and using fake identities. The dark web, hidden internet hubs of illicit activity such as stolen data, drugs and fraud, became a source of intelligence for many of them learning how companies operate, according to the report.

“The ease with which fraudulent players can piggyback on publicly accessible data is alarming,” said Donna Lemm, chief strategy officer for IMC Logistics, in the report.

Low risk, high reward

Experts attribute the proliferation and increasing brazenness of cargo theft mainly to lax criminal penalties and a lack of coordination among local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, creating a low-risk, high-reward environment in which criminals steal cargo worth hundreds of thousands — or even millions — of dollars.

It is costing the U.S. economy an estimated $35 billion annually, according to Homeland Security Investigations. And since 2021, strategic cargo theft has risen by more than 1500%, with the average value per theft more than $200,000, according to the American Trucking Association. The cost trickles down to the consumer by way of increased prices, from cholesterol medication to laptop computers.

Limited resources

Law enforcement agencies are struggling to keep up with the cargo thieves and hold them accountable.

“This has become such a big problem. It’s so rampant. This is happening all over Southern California,” said Fontana police Officer Daniel Romero, whose city is one of the hardest hit by cargo thieves due to its high concentration of warehouses and trucking routes. He said a shortage of officers in Fontana and at other agencies poses challenges to investigating crimes, which he said are reported daily.

“So we try to prioritize cases and work as many as we can,” Romero said.

Singh organization

The recent indictments of a dozen people accused of operating a cargo theft ring for more than three years in the Inland Empire and Los Angeles County underscore the scale of the problem. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department dubbed the group the “Singh Organization” because 11 of the 12 defendants share the surname or middle name Singh.

Federal indictments filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles allege the defendants posed as legitimate carriers on freight broker platforms and online load boards to secure shipping contracts. From September 2021 through June 2025, prosecutors say, they obtained cargo under false pretenses from shippers in San Bernardino, Riverside and Los Angeles counties, then stole the loads outright or siphoned off portions before delivery. Similar crimes are alleged in Arizona, Texas and Maryland.

Warehouses in Fontana, Moreno Valley, Walnut and the City of Industry were among the targets, authorities say. Stolen goods allegedly were stored in Santa Ana, Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Rancho Cucamonga before they were sold on the black market.

The defendants face charges including conspiracy to commit theft and wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

The methodology used by the defendants to commit their alleged crimes is referred to in the trucking industry as “fictitious pickups,” a growing form of cargo theft that trucking companies, shippers, and law enforcement say they are encountering with increasing frequency.

And trucking company owners, shippers and law enforcement are seeing more and more of them, along with the traditional forms of cargo and semi-truck thefts.

Companies hit

Tim Pollock, president of CPS Express, a trucking and logistics company in Ontario, has faced cargo theft firsthand.

Around 6 a.m. on Sept. 7, he said, two men pulled up to the company’s gate in a semi-truck. The passenger got out, used bolt cutters to cut the fence lock and dashed inside. Within minutes, he drove out the gate in a 2023 Freightliner Cascadia worth more than $150,000.

“They were in and out quick,” said Pollock, who is also president of the California Trucking Association.

A tracking device led police to the abandoned stolen truck in Buena Park the next day. Inside were keys for multiple semi-trucks and stolen license plates, likely left by the thieves, who according to Pollock have not been caught.

And in August, Pollock said, he and his staff foiled a double-brokering scheme after a fraudulent broker posing as legitimate targeted the company to transport a load before attempting to divert or steal the cargo and keep the payment.

“The delivery address had changed three times, and communication with that broker fell apart,” he said. “The fake broker was trying to intercept and tell us to take it somewhere else, but my team caught it and reported it to law enforcement.”

On Dec. 4, Gillis said thieves broke into IMC Logistics’ Compton yard and stole two cargo trailers loaded with goods valued at more than $300,000. Dressed in black, the perpetrators used blow torches to cut through the fence, disabled the company’s automatic gate, and drove in two semi-trucks. They hitched the trailers to the trucks and drove off.

“This was an operation that took maybe seven or eight minutes,” Gillis said.

By the time police were contacted and could respond, he said, the goods were already being advertised for sale on the internet. “We were going on Craigslist and Facebook, and there it was, in somebody’s backyard on a pallet,” Gillis said. He said the investigation is ongoing.

Hot bed

Southern California — particularly the Inland Empire, with its expanding logistics base and dense web of trucking corridors — has long been a hub for cargo theft.

“Ontario, Fontana, Rialto — those are where many major distribution centers are,” said a detective with the CHP’s Inland Division Cargo Theft Interdiction Program. “That whole area is a hotbed for cargo theft.”

However, theft activity is beginning to shift east toward Beaumont as Riverside County’s logistics footprint grows and massive tilt-up warehouses continue to be built.

Rialto police Lt. James Mills attributed rising thefts in his city to increasing population and warehousing. He said his department has responded to multiple thefts at the Pilot truck stop near the 210 Freeway, where loads have been dropped off by carriers caught in double-brokering schemes.

In response, Rialto police have expanded collaboration with the CHP’s cargo theft unit. “It’s becoming a common thing,” Mills said. “We’re making more calls to CHP and talking through how to deal with it.”

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Cargo Criminal Apprehension Team has remained active despite staffing shortages. On Sept. 10, deputies arrested eight suspects and recovered $1.4 million in stolen Acer computers, firearms, methamphetamine and seven stolen vehicles, including a semi-truck and trailer.

Despite the team’s successes, Sgt. David Pantoja said limited staffing remains a major obstacle to taking down more theft rings. “We’re down about 1,300 sworn members,” he said. “We don’t have enough staffing to investigate the number of cargo thefts happening daily.”

By the numbers

From 2021 through 2024, reported cargo thefts in California surged 283% — from 341 to 1,307 — according to CargoNet, a data analytics and risk assessment firm.

Los Angeles County recorded the most thefts at 1,378, followed by San Bernardino County with 1,231, Riverside County with 425, San Joaquin County with 181 and Kern County with 167. CargoNet noted that 55% of thefts occurred at warehouses and distribution centers.

Orange County did not rank among the top counties, a trend Gillis attributes to its smaller concentration of industrial warehousing tied to international trade.

“It’s more about cargo density,” Gillis said. “It doesn’t compare to Los Angeles, San Bernardino or Riverside counties.”

Railroad thefts costly, sometimes violent

Organized cargo theft is also putting a strain on the railroads, costing the industry more than $100 million in 2024, with more than 65,000 thefts nationwide — a roughly 40% increase over the previous year, according to the American Association of Railroads.

Will Johnson, chief special agent for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, told a Senate transportation subcommittee in February 2025 that cargo thieves are sabotaging rail safety equipment and endangering the public. He said cargo theft cases often cross multiple state lines, making jurisdictional coordination, prosecution and data collection difficult.

Furthermore, cargo theft on the railway can get extremely violent, he said. “There are frequent reports of armed suspects engaging in violent takeover-style robberies or shooting firearms during the commission of these burglaries,” Johnson said during the February hearing.

Pantoja attested to Johnson’s testimony on the dangers of railway theft.

“They’re cutting the brake lines and disabling trains. By the time the conductor can inspect the brake lines, the people are already cutting open the (shipping) containers and taking cargo,” he said, adding that he and his Cargo CATs team have responded to such incidents in Los Angeles.

In October, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department’s Rural Crimes Task Force partnered with BNSF and other agencies to take down an operation involving a series of cargo thefts from trains in the Victor Valley region.

“There were trains in the area that were getting hit pretty hard and losing millions of dollars each day in cargo,” said sheriff’s Detective Derek Ritarita, a member of the Rural Crimes Task Force.

The partnership paid off: On Oct. 30, seven search warrants were served across Los Angeles County. Investigators recovered $2.1 million worth of cargo allegedly stolen from BNSF.

Although BNSF has “robust security protocols,” a company spokesperson said it is essential that the entire criminal justice system, including policymakers, district attorneys and judges, focus on cargo theft to ensure criminals are brought to justice.

Union Pacific Railroad has invested more than $30 million since 2023 in security upgrades, including drones, AI-enabled cameras, and additional special agents across the Los Angeles basin, a company spokesperson said.

The twin ports

The twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach handle massive volumes of overseas cargo, making them potential targets for organized theft groups. However, cargo theft within the port complexes themselves is rare, officials say, due to extensive security measures.

Port of Los Angeles spokesperson Phillip Sanfield said thefts typically occur after cargo leaves the port by truck or rail. The port operates its own police department and works closely with local, state and federal agencies, while deploying advanced — but undisclosed — technology to track container movement.

Similarly, Port of Long Beach CEO Noel Hacegaba said cargo theft inside the port has remained uncommon over the past five years, adding that the port has addressed the issue as a regional threat through security upgrades, improved reporting and response procedures, and expanded partnerships with law enforcement and industry.

Proposed legislation

As cargo thieves adopt new technologies to sharpen their tactics, the trucking, shipping, and logistics industries — and their trade associations — have gained support for legislation that would impose harsher penalties and increased oversight of organized theft groups.

In April, Rep. Dave Joyce of Ohio introduced the bipartisan Combating Organized Retail Crime Act, which would create a coordination center within Homeland Security Investigations and integrate federal, state and local law enforcement, retail crime associations and other experts to share resources and implement strategies to better combat cargo theft and retail crimes.

The bill remains in the House Judiciary Committee. No further action has been taken on it thus far.

“Cargo theft is killing American businesses and hurting American consumers,” said Gillis of IMC Logistics. “The time for Congress and our government to act is now. We really need to push to get this over the finish line with urgency.”