Cargo theft hits everything from LEGO to tequila. We need the Senate to help stop it
At first glance, it looked like a mirage in the California desert: two trailers carrying $1 million worth of LEGO sets abandoned in the Mojave.
But the scene was real. After a chase through the desert, police caught up to the three thieves who hijacked the trucks carrying the expensive and easy-to-resell colorful bricks en route from Texas to California, hoping to make a quick buck off the black-market gold. It was also a vivid illustration of a growing national problem most Americans rarely see, even as they increasingly pay for it.
For the men and women who keep the nation’s supply chains moving, cargo theft has become an ever-present threat. Every time a truck driver pulls onto the highway, there is the possibility that the freight inside the trailer could vanish before it reaches its destination. According to Verisk CargoNet, Memorial Day has historically been a magnet for cargo thieves, as loaded trailers sit unattended and warehouse staffing levels drop.
The trucking industry loses $18 million every day due to cargo theft. But this is not simply an industry problem. It is an invisible tax on consumers. When $400,000 of Costco lobster, $1 million of Guy Fieri and Sammy Hagar’s branded tequila, or $4 million of skincare products go missing, insurance premiums rise for trucking companies and retailers, security costs increase and those expenses eventually appear in the prices Americans pay at stores and online checkouts.
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For consumers, the impact goes beyond a few cents at the register. Stolen goods delay deliveries and force retailers to raise prices to hedge against future losses. Products can become harder to find, especially during peak demand periods.
At a moment when many households are already strained by persistent inflation and rising gas prices, organized cargo theft is one more pressure pushing everyday costs higher.
That’s where Congress must step in.
On May 12, the House passed the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act, known as CORCA, designed to strengthen the federal response to organized theft networks. The Senate must follow suit.
Cargo theft rarely stops at state lines, but law enforcement authority often does. Local investigators are left untangling crimes that span multiple jurisdictions while criminal networks exploit the gaps. Three-quarters of stolen freight is never found, according to the American Transportation Research Institute. Just one in 10 cargo thefts lead to an arrest.
The LEGO heist was a rare exception — and an even rarer case where arrests followed. The issue is not lack of effort from law enforcement. It is that the crime has evolved faster than the tools to stop it.
CORCA would change that. It would improve intelligence-sharing across agencies, strengthen efforts to identify and pursue theft networks, and help seize stolen profits. It would also create a federal coordination center within the Department of Homeland Security. Law enforcement could finally respond without one hand tied behind its back.
They need these tools, because tracking the culprits and flow of money behind these tech-savvy heists can be next to impossible. Well-funded transnational criminal groups use fraudulent identities, manipulated dispatch systems and digital deception to impersonate trucking companies and redirect entire truckloads of goods without ever laying a finger on a truck.
By the time companies realize a shipment is missing, the cargo may already have been delivered to a fictitious warehouse, crossed several state lines — or international borders — and been resold. The FBI recently issued an announcement warning of the ever-evolving digital tactics thieves employ. All told, cargo theft is a low-risk, high-reward crime. By making CORCA law, we can flip that calculus.
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Perhaps most notable is the broad coalition behind the legislation. Trucking companies, retailers, railroads, and law enforcement groups support the bill, along with bipartisan majorities in the House. Why? Because they know we all pay if these criminal syndicates continue to run rampant.
The Senate now has a choice: pass CORCA and bring it to President Donald Trump’s desk or allow organized cargo theft to grow into an even more entrenched and costly threat — with American consumers paying the price.
The House has done its job.
Now it’s time for the Senate to do theirs.