FreightWatch International is warning that we may be seeing a new trend of cargo thieves attempting to use jamming devices to defeat tracking devices.

On July 22, a tractor and trailer hauling pharmaceutical products was stolen from a truck stop in Cartersville, Georgia. The truck was equipped with at least one tracking device concealed within the cargo. Evidence suggests that the thieves attempted to deploy two separate jamming devices to interrupt the communication of possible tracking devices on the shipment. 

The jamming was unsuccessful and law enforcement was able to track the shipment and recover the product intact. There were no arrests, though the investigation continues.

FreightWatch notes that this incident follows closely on the heels of another, in which suspected cargo thieves were apprehended in possession of jamming equipment in Brevard County, Florida, on June 26.

"These two incidents may indicate the beginning of a trend in which cargo thieves are attempting to utilize jammer devices in the U.S. as a counter-measure to covert GPS tracking," says the company, which sells cargo security tools but also tracks and analyzes cargo thefts and trends.

"While the recent jamming events have not proven to be successful, the use of jamming technology represents a potential challenge to the theft recovery process and should be taken seriously," FreightWatch says.

"Outside the U.S., jamming technology has been used by cargo thieves for some time and there are effective risk mitigation techniques deployed in those regions. If the risk of jamming in the U.S. quickly escalates, security programs will need to evolve to address the increased risk in the regions affected."

Original Article

By Tom Regan

BARTOW COUNTY, Ga. — 

Thieves stole a tractor-trailer rig loaded with $2 million in pharmaceutical drugs and narcotics as it was parked and running outside a Bartow County truck stop early Tuesday morning.

Investigators described it as a carefully planned heist.

"A lot of times you hear of trucks taken off the grid, in situations like this, where narcotics get into the hands of individuals who can put them out on the streets." Bartow County sheriff’s investigator Jonathan White said.

White told Channel 2's Tom Regan that the truck driver left his rig unlocked, with the keys inside, at a Pilot Travel Center on Cassville-White Road around 5.30 a.m. Tuesday. The driver went in to use the restroom and returned to find his rig gone, White said.

Within a few minutes of the theft being reported, a tracking device on the trailer alerted the trucking company and police to its location.

Investigators say the thieves tried to throw police off their trail by switching out the truck cab that was pulling the trailer.

"Basically on this they had a truck on standby, to swap out that tractor and trailer with another one, so it would be concealed. And they used Velcro to over the license tag to conceal the plate and replace it with another one." said Investigator White.

Georgia State Patrol and Bartow County sheriff's deputies tracked the stolen rig to an exit off Interstate 75. In a slow-speed chase, they followed the rig into an industrial park where the thieves stopped the truck, jumped out of the passenger door, and ran into nearby woods.

Investigators recovered the drugs but said they are still looking those behind the heist, which they suspect was an inside job.

"These are targeted, where they can strike in this transport chain, and get the trucks easily," Bartow County Sheriff's Sgt. Jonathan Rogers said.

Rogers said it likely someone provided the thieves with information on what the truck was carrying. Other truckers said they take extra precautions when passing through the metro Atlanta area.

"Whenever I get near Atlanta, I always get an alert to watch my truck, my trailer, because Atlanta is known for getting thefts." truck driver Adam Orcutt said.

Another driver said he rarely loses sight of his truck.

"We're very cautious; very much watch our load anywhere we got. [We] don't leave them alone anywhere," truck driver Rick Rusher said.

Investigators said they are looking into the possibility that the thieves behind Wednesday’s scheme are part of a larger criminal network involved in truck theft.

Original News Article

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Memphis, Tenn., business owner pleaded guilty in federal court today to his role in a cargo theft scheme that included a theft in West Plains, Mo.

Earl Stanley Nunn, 59, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge David P. Rush to theft of an interstate shipment.

Nunn, the owner of Nu World Trucking, LLC, was the leader of a cargo theft ring that used the resources of Nu World Trucking to steal cargo in various states. They did so by “bob-tailing” (meaning they traveled in a road tractor truck, without a semi-trailer attached) through truck stops and service stations located on or near interstate highways, looking for semi-trailers that had been left parked and unattended, and were not coupled to road tractors. When they located a semi-trailer that appeared to be unattended, they would steal the semi-trailer and the goods it contained by coupling their road tractor truck to it and driving off. After having stolen a semi-trailer and its contents, they usually transported the stolen goods to the Chicago, Ill., and Detroit, Mich., areas to be “fenced” or sold.

Nunn’s co-conspirators included his nephew, Michael Lee Sherley, 49, of Memphis, Tenn. (who pleaded guilty on March 19, 2014), his son, Roderick Nunn (who pleaded guilty in a related case in the Western District of Michigan) and others.

The government plans to establish that co-conspirators committed thefts in various states, including Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

The specific charge to which both Nunn and Sherley pleaded guilty involves a theft that occurred on May 11, 2013, at the Snappy Mart Truck Stop in West Plains. Nunn and Sherley stole a 2000 Wabash trailer (valued at $7,500), which contained a load of Green Giant canned corn (valued at $73,008). The trailer, owned by Bryant Freight, LLC, was in transit from Minnesota to a food bank in Arkansas. Nunn and Sherley admitted that they traveled through Missouri and Indiana with the stolen cargo before being apprehended in Michigan.

Under federal statutes, Nunn and Sherley are each subject to a sentence of up to 10 years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $250,000. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Mohlhenrich. It was investigated by the FBI’s Memphis Cargo Theft Task Force, the U.S. Marshal’s Service, the West Plains, Mo., Police Department and the Michigan State Highway Patrol.

Original Article

A multi-million-dollar robbery sees truckloads of phones, tablets and laptops stolen.

By Jon Gold 
NetworkWorld 

A Samsung factory in Brazil was robbed of at least $6.3 million in hardware by a gang of about 20 armed people at around midnight on Monday, according to reports from local media.

The Samsung facility is located in Campinas, a city of roughly 1 million people located about 60 miles northwest of São Paulo. Brazilian police told O Globo that the criminals stopped a van full of employees on the way to the facility, used their stolen ID badges to gain entry, and kept two of the victims as hostages.


Hundreds of workers on-site went about their jobs during three hours in which the gang was essentially in charge of the factory. The thieves eventually left, in seven separate trucks, with 40,000 items – mostly phones, tablets and laptops – taken from the facility’s distribution center. Samsung said the value of the stolen goods is about $6.3 million, although police said that the value was actually more like $36 million.

Early indications are that the thieves may have had inside help – police told ZDNet that the gang was well-informed as to the location of particularly valuable goods.

According to Folha da São Paulo, this isn’t the first time that Samsung has been the target of this type of theft – an incident last year saw 900 cell phones, worth about $630,000, stolen. That load was partially recovered, however. That same report noted that the Campinas area is apparently a popular one for cargo thieves, with São Paulo police dubbing it “the Bermuda Triangle.”

Law and order has been difficult for Brazilian authorities to maintain of late, with widespread street protests against governmental policy and the World Cup, which is currently in its final stages. Discontent has spread online as well, in the form of DDoS attacks against the World Cup’s sponsors and organizers.

This story, "Thieves Steal 40,000 Gadgets From Samsung Factory in Brazil" was originally published by NetworkWorld . Original Article Here