The threat landscape in cargo theft, which Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) estimates costs US businesses between $15 billion and $35 billion annually, is becoming increasingly sophisticated and strategic. Organized criminal groups—many originating outside the US—now aggressively target supply chain vulnerabilities by remotely manipulating data, paperwork, and identities to gain access to freight under false pretenses.
There’s been a significant rise in this “strategic cargo theft,” with CargoNet’s annual analysis reporting a 27 percent increase from 2024 and the estimated average value per theft rising to $202,364, up from $187,895 in 2023. This is likely just the tip of the iceberg, as industry experts believe strategic cargo theft is vastly underreported.
“As supply chain criminals become more sophisticated, we have seen a troubling rise in fictitious pickups,” said Byron Smith, CFI, LPC, vice chairman of the International Supply Chain Protection Organization (ISCPO). “The industry has responded proactively because securing the supply chain is not just about protecting cargo, but preserving the trust and business continuity of individual organizations and the global supply chain community in today’s environment.”
These crimes have implications for every participant in the supply chain, from the retailer to the end consumer and everyone in between. Sources we spoke with say it will require greater collaboration among many entities, more streamlined prosecution processes, and revised legislation to stay ahead of strategic cargo theft.
A Boundaryless, Often Silent Crime
Over half of Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) members have reported increased strategic cargo theft, and 30 percent have reported significant increases. The average loss per incident was $5 million, and several hundreds of millions when added together over the last two years. Where the criminal groups orchestrating some of this theft exist is virtually limitless, ranging from Mexico and Canada to Eastern Europe and everywhere in between. The goods stolen often end up being sold in the countries where the scheme originated.
“It’s a significant problem and only becoming more so,” said Jess Dankert, vice president of supply chain at RILA. “We see the nature of it spreading to being multinational and transnational groups who can do many things from behind a keyboard in an entirely other country.”
For instance, between 100 and 200 criminals with the same last name who originated from Southeast Asia and represent a small percentage of suspects have wreaked havoc in California and across the country, said Gerardo A. Pachuca, a retired deputy sheriff with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Pachuca, who spent the last 19 years of his law enforcement career assigned to the Cargo Criminal Apprehension Team (CAT), said the organized criminal group has been referred to across the US by law enforcement and victims in the freight transportation industry as the “Singh Crew.” In February of 2024, over $1.5 million worth of stolen goods found in a Riverside County raid was attributed to this group.
Now CEO of G.A. Pachuca Inc., which predominantly provides cargo theft awareness and prevention training in California, Pachuca says part of the problem with criminal groups originating abroad is that it’s a family business. “When I was first assigned to the Cargo CATs team, we were arresting the grandpas, then we were arresting their sons, then the grandkids, and their uncles, cousins, and nephews,” he said. “Now, there’s a whole different generation of cargo thieves.”
The evolving transnational aspect of strategic cargo theft makes it murky to identify and prosecute. So, too, does the fact that several supply chain entities could be potential victims, says Alexandra Rosen, vice president of legislative affairs for the American Trucking Associations (ATA).
“You have the shipper that loses the load; you’ve got the unwitting motor carrier that provides a service and is never paid for it,” she said. “And you have the broker who now has to deal with misdirected rage from motor carrier victims and negative reviews because they are being asked to pay for loads they never brokered. So then they have to deal with the consumer side.”
Rosen pointed to recent testimony from the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, Freight, Pipelines, and Safety in which Adam Blanchard, principal and CEO of Tanager Logistics and Double Diamond Transport of San Antonio, Texas, explained his experience with double brokering, in which fraudulent intermediaries broker a load to an innocent motor carrier. In one example, the thieves re-routed a shipment of energy drinks worth over six figures more than 1,000 miles from its intended destination.
“About a year ago, our American dream turned into a nightmare when some unscrupulous criminals stole our identity,” Blanchard testified. “By capitalizing on our good name, they tarnished the reputation we had spent over a decade to earn.”
He said his company was the target of anger from motor carriers who had also been scammed and blacklisted by factoring companies for fraudulent invoices and non-payment to those motor carriers. When his company tried to report these crimes, Blanchard said he kept hitting dead ends with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies—even the business’s insurance company refused to get involved.
“These are complex, multi-jurisdictional crimes often involving organizational theft groups,” he continued. “Yet, there is no unified, dedicated federal response. Thieves emboldened by the lack of investigations and prosecutions are growing the size and sophistication of their theft operations.”
JJ Coughlin, chairman of the Southwest Transportation Security Council, echoes this sentiment. His organization, which has members from the US and Canada, shares incident information in its BOLO and Alert Program and provides industry and law enforcement training at its annual conference.
“Cargo theft is often treated like a victimless crime, so it is really about getting authorities to understand the large economic impact of the crime and sentencing perpetrators appropriately for the economic damage they cause,” he said in an email.
David Johnston, vice president of the National Retail Federation’s asset protection and retail operations, said that cross-functional collaboration between retail functions, including asset protection, cybersecurity, and supply chain/logistics, is required as strategic cargo theft moves into the cyber realm.
“Together, they need to fully understand the vectors and tactics of these criminals so they can educate and inform law enforcement,” he said. “They also must coordinate and collaborate with their transportation providers.”
The Impact on Retailers and Consumers
RILA and NRF members ULTA Beauty and The Home Depot have seen strategic cargo theft escalate in their businesses over the last few years, including instances of fictitious pickups and double brokering. They are taking several proactive measures to stop it.
“We have seen where illegitimate brokers have portrayed themselves as legitimate companies setting up a ‘good’ driver to pick up our load,” wrote Adam Stokes, LPC, the brand’s senior director of loss prevention, supply chain, ops, and enterprise security at ULTA Beauty. “Carriers pose as legitimate carriers and surf external load boards to acquire load data. In this scenario, we have seen both a legitimate carrier coming in to pick up the load and the bad actor.”
ULTA Beauty’s primary focus has been on robust internal training, equipping its teams with the knowledge to identify and prevent fictitious pickup shipments. They have also developed educational resources for drivers to raise awareness about the risks of fictitious pickups, as many are unknowingly involved in transporting stolen loads.
“We have extended this training to our freight brokers, ensuring they are well‑versed in risk mitigation strategies,” he wrote. “We have also implemented sophisticated tracking technologies that enable us to promptly detect deviations from planned routes, allowing for swift intervention from our 24/7 security operations center in potential theft scenarios.”
Paul Ganz, senior director of supply chain asset protection at The Home Depot, said his company employs traditional and non‑traditional tactics to protect its assets from origin to destination. He could not elaborate on the specifics but thinks that reducing the impact of the problem more broadly “starts with awareness, communication, transparency, and government interaction.”
“We work with our carriers all the time and make sure that they are meeting our expectations and requirements from both security and making sure that they can achieve the expectations that we set for them as a company, and a big part of that is we’re trusting them to move our product,” he said.
When a product is stolen while being moved, it impacts the end consumer, and Ganz, as a consumer himself, keeps that in mind.
“The loss incurred ends up at some point costing the consumer. Prices are high enough today. We want to make sure that we are protecting the product movement.”
Glenn Master, head of asset protection, security, and crisis management at McLane Company and president and board chairman of ISCPO, participated in an LPM webinar on fictitious pickups last fall. He said consumers will see the impact on two fronts.
“One, replenishment is not made to stores, and second, online shoppers are not receiving parcels,” he said. “Both would result from an entire trailer load being stolen.”
Regardless of socioeconomic level, all consumers can feel the pain—especially during economic uncertainty.
“This crime impacts the US economy and is a domino effect, affecting everyone from the richest to the poorest,” Pachuca said.
Cultural Change and Collaboration Are Critical
Strategic cargo theft upends how retailers, shippers, and brokers have historically done business. Therefore, it necessitates cultural change within a retailer’s organization and stronger collaboration with insurers, law enforcement, government, and industry organizations.
“It comes down to a change in philosophy within the retailer’s organization,” Master said. “Just because you hire a third-party company or broker for transportation doesn’t mean you ship a load and hope it gets to its destination. Retailers need to understand the broker’s ability to track loads in real time and set perimeters with them for notification if that load goes off course or does not reach its destination in the time allotted.”
The NRF has seen extensive collaboration and cross-functional work between asset protection, cybersecurity, the supply chain, and logistics on the retail front.
“One of the things I think the retailers are paying more attention to now is knowing everybody in your supply chain and knowing who they are, where they’re doing their business, and if they have those capabilities when they’re thinking of bringing on more supply chain partners to work with,” said Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy at NRF.
Supply chain industry organizations and private companies are also working to help in this area.
For instance, the Transported Asset Protection Association (TAPA) has convened stakeholders to develop industry standards for freight and facility security, which many retailers and manufacturers have adopted to ensure a baseline expectation for freight security. ISCPO members have increased staff training, reviewing their driver vetting and verification procedures, real-time tracking, and collaboration with trusted logistics partners.
“The industry has responded proactively—because in today’s environment, securing the supply chain is not just about protecting cargo, but preserving the trust and business continuity of individual organizations and the global supply chain community,” Smith of ISCPO wrote in an email.
Two years ago in April, Dale Prax, a former owner and operator for over thirty years, launched FreightValidate, a carrier and freight broker identity verification and vetting system serving shippers, carriers, freight brokers, load-boards, and factoring companies. To maintain “FreightValidated” status, carriers and brokers must meet strict compliance requirements, including:
- Active motor carrier authority and DOT number
- Compliance with Principal Place of Business Regulations (49 CFR § 390.5T)—no P.O. boxes or virtual addresses; a physical location is required
- Active Unified Carrier Registration
- (UCR)—compliance with the Unified Carrier Registration Act of 2005 (49 USC § 14504a), ensuring carriers and brokers properly register and maintain UCR requirements
- Disclosure of affiliation with other FMCSA‑regulated entities (49 CFR § 386.73, 49 CFR § 387.309, 49 CFR § 390.19), transparency in company ownership and associations
- No documented fraud history or double brokering activity
“The bad guys have more time, energy, and money to be proactive than we can react,” Prax said. “They are in it for a full-time job.”
Strengthening Law Enforcement and Government Response
Given both the multi-layered and multi‑national nature of strategic cargo theft and how rapidly its tactics have evolved in recent years, it’s become challenging to keep up from a law enforcement and legislative perspective. Regulatory confusion and lack of coordination have made enforcement inconsistent, as Blanchard’s testimony and other sources we spoke with highlight.
“No one knows who has jurisdiction,” Prax said. “The guy is trying to report to the police. The police say, ‘It’s not my job.’ The FBI says it’s not egregious enough because they want something with millions and millions of dollars.”
When he investigated for the LA Sheriff’s Department, Pachuca said it was hard to get the state-level district attorneys to file cases against cargo thieves who took product over state lines or committed wire fraud—they only wanted to deal with the local violations. The FBI and other federal agencies have only recently gotten aggressively involved on the West Coast.
Master said that at the state level, cargo theft must be viewed as something other than retail theft or commercial burglary. “It does not fall into either of these categories, and because of the complexity of brokering, most district attorneys are not educated on where the victimization ultimately falls, discouraging prosecution,” he said.
Last year, the Loss Prevention Research Council conducted a survey with the Supply Chain Protection Working Group (SCPWG) members about their experience with cargo theft. Most respondents (92 percent) reported cargo theft to local police. However: “These law enforcement groups have limited jurisdiction bound within state or city lines, which makes it difficult to prevent cargo theft given the interstate and international travel that occurs within the supply chain,” notes the related research report published by the LPRC.
A spokesperson wrote in an email that, depending on the situation, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) may refer complaints to the US Department of Justice and the US Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General when warranted.
“We also actively engage with stakeholders in the trucking industry about the increase in identity theft across the industry and what FMCSA is doing to combat freight/broker scams,” the spokesperson wrote. “When complaints are submitted to the agency, they are investigated to the extent of FMCSA’s authority at which point we may refer the case to other federal partners.”
FMCSA is also using technology to combat strategic cargo theft. This month, it will implement a new ID verification process for new individual registrants. Later this year, it will roll out a new registration system. Once fully rolled out, the new registration system will include ID proofing, address verification, and other ways to identify scam entities.
At the time that this went to press, strategic cargo theft legislation was in flux.
While two separate bills—the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act of 2023 and the Safeguarding the Supply Chains Act—were introduced last Congress, neither advanced to the House or Senate floor for a vote. In the 119th Congress, groups across the supply chain, including retailers, trucking, rail, and others, have worked with congressional staff to combine efforts and develop a more comprehensive approach to targeting theft across the entire supply chain.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is now pursuing a unified strategy through the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act (CORCA), led by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada). Congressman Dave Joyce (R-Ohio) is leading identical legislation in the House. CORCA seeks to enhance legal frameworks, improve enforcement capabilities, and foster coordination across federal, state, and local agencies. The legislation would enable the prosecution of organized retail and supply chain crime groups using interstate or foreign commerce and establish an Organized Retail and Supply Chain Crime Coordination Center within the Department of Homeland Security’s HSI.
“Our goal in these negotiations was to ensure that the scope of the legislation sufficiently represented each industry’s needs in the bill, such as cargo theft, fraud, and related crimes throughout all stages of the supply chain, including production, transportation, freight brokerage, processing, storage, distribution, and retail,” Rosen of ATA said. “We needed something that would hit the root cause of organized supply chain crime because it’s dire for our membership.”
Another bipartisan bill, the Household Goods Shipping Consumer Protection Act, would equip the FMCSA with the tools to protect consumers from fraud perpetrated by scammers in the interstate transportation of household goods. Reintroduced in December, the bill would also strengthen penalties against bad actors. At the time of press, Rosen felt hopeful that the Senate would move this bill and CORCA forward.
“Without a federal solution, I don’t see a respite soon,” she said.
A Roundup of Recommendations
We asked some of our sources for closing thoughts on the most proactive ways retailers can prevent strategic cargo theft in 2025 and beyond:
The Home Depot: “The first question to ask the carrier is, ‘Tell me about what measures you take to ensure that the product that I load or that I ordered makes it to me on time.’”
NRF: “Retailers should use dedicated carriers who own and operate trucks and transportation. Properly vet carriers, utilizing third-party vendors who can assist in the process. Build strong procedures around bill of lading creation to limit the ability to falsely recreate and communication protocols to confirm any changes across transit. Engage with organizations like CargoNet or ISCPO to stay ahead of theft trends and methods.”
SWTC: “Shippers must protect themselves by vetting their broker/carrier providers and contractually holding them liable for loss. They also need to establish points of ‘pickup control’ processes that document everything about any carrier/driver picking up their products for transportation. Shippers would also be better protected if they controlled their freight through visibility methods, geo- fencing monitoring, and specific protocols.”
RILA: “You have a supply chain leader, a government affairs leader, and an asset protection leader that are all collaborating on the same topic, and that is symbolic of what retailers’ internal processes should almost duplicate. Because it is walking away from, ‘That’s my lane, that’s your lane.’ It’s the collective resources that can come together.”
FMCSA: “It’s also up to individuals and businesses to protect themselves. Don’t give personal information out. If you suspect a scam, stop and report it. Do not give Electronic Logging Device (ELD) access or registration system information. This could let bad actors track and possibly steal your loads. Lastly—and most importantly—be vigilant.”
