World wide stolen car racket out of control..sales support terrorism, see video here from Sydney Australia with News article here, the cars are cut apart with acetylene torches packed into containers and shipped to Dubai for reassembly and then re-sale at 2 to 3 times the retail in Australia (same deal in the United States), big profits for the support of terrorism.
On video police intercepts of phone conversations between used car dealer George el-Farr in Jordan and his son in Sydney, they discuss stealing a car to "order", certain color etc.
Many stolen cars sold overseas ...By EMILY WATT The Dominion Post Newspaper. Stolen cars are being stripped and shipped overseas in smuggling rings which are almost impossible to prevent, police say. The cars are often stripped down and smuggled in shipping containers bound for the Middle East. Others are sent whole to the Pacific Islands.
When concealed among legitimate car exports, they are extremely difficult to intercept, police and customs say.Twenty two thousand cars -- about one every 25 minutes -- are stolen each year, costing the insurance industry $120 million. Police say 4000 are never recovered, and many end up either overseas or are sold here with false registration plates.
Authorities hope Government plans to "microdot" all imported cars and parts by next year will reduce such smuggling.Senior Constable Jeff Haynes, a specialist car theft investigator at Henderson police, said the thieves were making big money. "If you get (the car) for nothing, it's pure profit. And it's not taxed either, so you're 33 to 39 per cent better off."
A large number of stolen cars were also "ringed" -- sold back onto New Zealand roads with false registration plates. Haynes said Toyota Hiace vans were regularly stolen, and many were almost certainly destined for Middle East markets.Australian police report a huge market there for Commodores and Camrys, which were being shipped to the clogged streets of Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia for taxis.Haynes visited Auckland ports in 2006 and found eight stolen cars destined for the Pacific Islands in one month.
The next month there were four, then two, then one. He could no longer patrol the ports because of other commitments, and said "no-one's checking them".Police efforts to prosecute those caught were often stymied by the lack of support from overseas agencies, Haynes said.Police intercepted a shipment of 10 stolen brand-new Toyota Land Cruisers -- worth $80,000 to $100,000 each -- but were unable to prosecute the Japanese-based former New Zealand car dealer behind the shipment due to lack of co-operation from Japanese authorities.
Customs trade and marine group manager Phil Chitty said Customs X-rayed or physically inspected only a small proportion of the thousands of incoming and outgoing shipping containers each year. Officers usually relied on police or other outside information to intercept stolen property.Insurance Council chief executive Chris Ryan said he was aware of the overseas smuggling racket, but the ringing of stolen cars for local roads was a bigger concern.
From next year, the Government will require all imported cars to be sprayed with tiny scannable microdots, giving each a unique, traceable identity.Police and the insurance industry have supported the move, saying it would make it easier to identify stolen parts and harder for thieves to change a vehicle's identity. --Dominion Post.
Bill Warner, Private Investigator
