Senate urged to pass CORCA bill to combat organized cargo theft crisis
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At first glance, it looked like a mirage in the California desert: Two trailers carrying $1 million worth of LEGO sets were abandoned in the Mojave.
But the scene was real. After a chase through the desert, police caught three thieves who hijacked trucks carrying expensive and easy-to-resell colored bricks from Texas to California in the hope of making a quick buck on black market gold. It was also a vivid example of a growing, albeit increasingly costly, national problem that most Americans rarely see.
Cargo theft has become an ever-present threat to the men and women who keep the nation’s supply chains moving. Every time a truck driver hits the highway, there is a chance that the cargo inside the trailer will disappear before reaching its destination. According to Verisk CargoNet, Memorial Day has historically been a magnet for cargo thieves as loaded trailers become adrift and warehouse staffing levels decrease.
The trucking industry loses $18 million every day due to cargo theft. But this isn’t just an industry problem. It is an invisible tax on consumers. When $400,000 worth of Costco lobster, $1 million worth of Guy Fieri and Sammy Hagar’s branded tequila, or $4 million worth of skin care products go missing, insurance premiums rise for trucking companies and retailers, security costs mount, and those expenses eventually show up in the prices Americans pay in stores and online payments.
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Criminal groups will use online load boards to map out the routes of vehicles carrying cargo they hope to steal, ultimately catching drivers with forged documents and taking the goods overseas. (iStock)
For consumers, the impact goes beyond a few cents to pay at the checkout. Stolen goods delay deliveries and force retailers to raise prices to protect against future losses. It may be difficult to find products, especially during periods of high demand.
At a time when many households are already struggling persistent inflation and rising gas prices, organized cargo theft are another pressure that drives daily costs even higher.
This is where Congress needs to step in.
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On May 12, the House passed the Organized Retail Crime Combating Act, known as CORCA, designed to strengthen the federal response against organized theft networks. The Senate also needs to comply.
Cargo theft rarely stops at state borders, but law enforcement often does. As criminal networks exploit these loopholes, local investigators are left to solve crimes that span multiple jurisdictions. Three-quarters of the stolen freight was never found, according to the American Transportation Research Institute. Only one in 10 cargo thefts results in an arrest.
The LEGO heist was a rare exception, and an even rarer one that was followed by arrests. The problem is not a lack of effort by law enforcement. Crime progresses faster than the means to stop it.
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CORCA will change this. This will improve interagency intelligence sharing, strengthen efforts to detect and track theft networks, and help recover stolen profits. At the same time, a federal coordination center will be created within the Department of Homeland Security. Law enforcement was finally able to intervene without one hand being tied behind his back.
They need these tools because tracking the criminals and money flows behind these tech-savvy heists can be nearly impossible. Well-funded transnational criminal groups use fake identities, manipulated dispatch systems and digital deception to impersonate trucking companies and route truckloads of goods without ever touching a truck.
Stolen goods delay deliveries and force retailers to raise prices to protect against future losses. It may be difficult to find products, especially during periods of high demand.
By the time companies realize a shipment is lost, the shipment may have already been delivered to a fictitious warehouse, crossed multiple state or international borders, and been resold. The FBI recently issued a warning about the ever-evolving digital tactics thieves are using. After all, cargo theft is a low-risk, high-reward crime. We can reverse this calculus by passing the CORCA law.
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Perhaps most notable is the broad coalition behind the legislation. A bipartisan majority in the House of Representatives also supports the bill, along with trucking companies, retailers, railroads and law enforcement. From where? Because they know that if these criminal organizations continue to roam free, we will all pay.
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 a more entrenched and costly threat — with American consumers paying the price.
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The parliament did its part.
Now it’s time for the Senate to do its own thing.
