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OPERATION ROADRUNNER
March 24,
2005
Cloned stolen
vehicles and identity theft pose a serious threat to the nation
by organized criminal groups and potential terrorists
Operation
Roadrunner highlights the importance for Homeland Security
initiatives and cross border cooperation on vehicles. This
two-year investigation of organized criminal groups interacting
on cloned stolen vehicles and identity theft reached far beyond
Florida into at least 14 additional states, including ties to
suspects in smuggling narcotics, grow houses, and one subject
was arrested for an outstanding homicide case in Miami-Dade
County. Two suspects in this organized criminal enterprise were
operating from federal prison and one from the Miami-Dade County
jail.
In October 2003,
Miami-Dade Auto Theft Task Force detectives and the Florida
Attorney General’s Office of the Statewide Prosecutor, with
assistance from the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement,
launched an investigation into the Ferrer organized crime group
in Florida. This case of cloned stolen vehicles and identity
theft led to a distribution network operating throughout the
United States.
May 2004, the
first rounds of arrests were made under state statutes of
Racketeering and Conspiracy to Commit Racketeering. Arrested
were Rafael Ferrer, Antonio Ferrer, of Miami-Dade, William
Fuentes, of Louisville, Kentucky, Daryous Kangarani of Las
Vegas, Nevaida and Sean McClinton of Virginia Beach, Virginia.
This second round
of charges for Racketeering and Conspiracy to Commit
Racketeering include Carlos Ponce (who is currently incarcerated
in Miami-Dade County jail), Jorge Luis Valdes, Francisco Sabilla,
of Miami-Dade, Richard Wershe Jr., Lorenzo Nichols Jr. and
Lorenz Nichols Sr. Richard Wershe Jr. and Lorengo Nichols Sr.
are currently incarcerated in a federal prison for other
criminal acts. The investigation is continuing and further
arrests are expected.
The investigation
has identified over 250 vehicles valued at approximately $8
million that have been stolen and sold with altered vehicle
identification numbers and paperwork. To date, over 21 suspects
have been arrested on various state charges and 119 vehicles
have been recovered with an approximate value of $3.5 million.
This group would target and take high-end vehicles including
Hummer H2s and Escalades.
Cloned vehicles
and identity theft are a growing and significant problem
throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. The lack of an
integrated registration system allows criminal groups to “clone”
vehicle identification numbers (VIN) from vehicles in multiple
states and countries at one time. The suspects in this
investigation utilized cloned numbers from the United States and
even Canada to conceal the stolen vehicles. These vehicles are
sought by smuggling operations to make it difficult for law
enforcement to link vehicles to them. Worldwide, stolen/altered
vehicles are being utilized by terrorist organizations in
vehicle bombs. The crime can have a significant impact on
investigations, making it more difficult or impossible to
identify suspects.
In the United
States, two vehicle bombs, one at the World Trade Center in 1993
and the other in the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995, involved
vehicles that were quickly identified. If these vehicles had
been altered with cloned numbers, investigators may not have
been able to make timely arrests. Clearly, with this system
online, it would save lives and assist in the prevention of
these acts.
More recently,
during a raid on an Abu Musab al-Zarqawi command center in
Fallujah, an SUV registered in Texas was found being converted
into a bomb (CBS News November 19, 2004). Sunday, March 13,
2005, Time Magazine wrote that reports indicated that al-Zarqawi
seeks to strike “soft targets” in the United States by smuggling
vehicles through the US - Mexican border. Just citing these two
examples shows that to be able to accurately identify a vehicle
is a global issue.
Auto theft costs
the citizens of the United States over $8 billion annually (NICB
Press Release, February 28, 2005). Without the ability to clone
vehicles and obtain “legitimate” titles, stolen vehicles could
not be resold for a high profit that organized groups now reap.
In 1992, the US Congress passed the Title II of the Anti-Car
Theft Act requiring the establishment of the National Motor
Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS), to be on-line by
January of 1996.
This system will
integrate information from all 50 states of the US so that the
registration processing of vehicles cannot be cloned and titles
“washed” of information such as damage claims. The NMVTIS
project is still ongoing but is currently facing a funding issue
to become fully operational. The American Association of Motor
Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) has the responsibility for
managing and implementing the system. AAMVA is working to
secure funding and to integrate the system with Canada and
Mexico. Funding this system is important to fighting organized
crime, and providing homeland security in North America.
The success of
this investigation was due to the efforts of members from the
Miami-Dade Police Department, the Miami-Date Multi-Agency Auto
Theft Task Force, the Florida Attorney General’s Office of
Statewide Prosecutor, the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of
Prisons, the Federal Highway Patrol, the Florida Division of
Motor Vehicles, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, the
National Insurance Crime Bureau, the Hialeah Gardens Police
Department and the Miami-Dade Correction’s Department. In
addition, a number of local, county, and state agencies,
specifically the Louisville Police Department, the Arizona
Department of Public Safety, the New York City Police
Department, the Virginia Beach Police Department, the California
Highway Patrol, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department,
the Phoenix Police Department, the Detroit Police Department and
the Georgia Division of Motor Vehicles provided assistance and
conducted their own investigations related to this case.
Miami-Dade Police Department
Media Relations Bureau
9105 NW 25111 Street Doral, Florida 33172-1500
305-471-1900
Fax: 305-471-1904
