Customs Recover Stolen Exotic Cars

Using false identities, defrauding financing companies, vehicle insurers and even local dealerships it seems that these smugglers where ready to use any means necessary to get their hands on a list of 20 some high-end vehicles and get them overseas.

Ferrari 458 Recovered by CBP

This is not a script for the highly anticipated sequel to “Gone in 60 seconds” featuring Nicolas Cage. This was the setting of our nation’s largest import and export harbor, the Los Angeles/Long Beach Sea Port early April where authorities seized the exotics that where boxed up in containers and labeled as used exercise equipment. [quote float=’left’]Totaling in over $1.5 million, a 2010 Ferrari 458 Italia, a limited production 2012 Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 and a handful of late model BMW’s, Audi’s and Mercedes[/quote] where just some of the high-price tag cars intercepted at the port on their way to Vietnam. Authorities say that another ship that left just days before containing similar type of illegal cargo was turned out mid-transit in efforts to recover more stolen automobiles.

It is believed the U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers executed the raid after being tipped of by the Ferrari dealership who tracked their missing prancing stallion to the port using a GPS device installed in the car for this specific reason. These exclusive rides were being shipped to a country where there is an overwhelming demand in luxury and performance vehicles and buyers are willing to pay two to three times their cost in the states. Such lucrative opportunity has driven these individuals to collaborate efforts and falsify documents and even identities. Investigators assume that a sophisticated smuggling ring is in play to ship cars overseas, no arrests have yet been made on what surely sound like a plot to a familiar Hollywood thriller.

Source: U.S. Customs & Border Protection