OPINION:
It was a routine haul. Until it wasn’t.
A truck loaded with 2,810 brand-new Nintendo Switch 2 consoles worth about $1.4 million had made it most of the way from Nintendo’s U.S. headquarters in Washington to a GameStop distribution center in Texas.
A crew of professional thieves struck at a travel stop in Colorado under the cover of darkness. Using specialized equipment such as a pallet jack, they cleaned out the truck and disappeared. No gunfire. No smashed glass. Just a high-value load gone in minutes, proof that today’s cargo criminals aren’t smash-and-grab amateurs. They’re organized, patient and alarmingly effective.
That’s the problem.
Transnational criminal syndicates have turned our roads into their personal hunting grounds. Cargo theft losses jumped 27% in 2024 and are projected to climb another 22% in 2025, with the average loss per incident topping $200,000. Strategic theft — deception, fraud and cybertheft — has skyrocketed 1,500% since 2021. All told, cargo theft now siphons more than $35 billion annually from the U.S. supply chain.
These aren’t one-off crimes. They’re brazen, targeted strikes with alarmingly evolving digital tactics.
Criminals hit brokers with cyberhacks, impersonate legitimate carriers and hijack goods before drivers know what’s happening. Freight is rerouted before it leaves the warehouse, shipped across the Pacific and resold before anyone can intervene. Electronics aren’t the only target. Copper, food, meat, energy drinks and even eggs are now prime prey.
Every heist leaves a trail of damage. Small trucking companies face soaring insurance costs or go under. Retailers get slammed with delays. Consumers pay more at the register. Even broader, this is a direct hit to national security. Profits from stolen goods fuel human trafficking, narcotics rings and even terrorism. Congress must act.
The Combating Organized Retail Crime Act is the answer. This bipartisan bill, introduced by Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, in the Senate and Rep. David Joyce, Ohio Republican, in the House, would create a dedicated Department of Homeland Security coordination center, modernize outdated statutes and enable real-time data sharing among agencies, industry and law enforcement.
Right now, cargo theft remains a low-risk, high-reward crime. Thieves can steal millions of dollars in minutes with little fear of arrest. Fragmented jurisdictions, minimal penalties and limited resources allow cases to vanish into thin air.
Local police can’t always pursue crimes across state lines, and federal agencies rarely step in unless the losses are extreme, making cargo theft a rapidly growing, low-consequence business.
CORCA would establish a long-overdue federal task force to combat these criminal rings and create a national cargo theft database, providing an accurate picture of the crisis. Current data is self-reported, likely underestimating the true economic damage. This federal legislation would shift the balance, making cargo theft a high-risk, low-reward gamble.
America’s truckers are the backbone of our economy, moving more than 70% of the nation’s freight tonnage and keeping shelves stocked, factories supplied and communities connected. When they are targeted, everyone loses. Every attack on a truck is an attack on the supply chain that keeps America moving.
The FBI and Homeland Security Department have flagged cargo theft as a growing national threat, but they can’t take meaningful action to protect America’s truckers, consumers and businesses until CORCA is law. If Congress doesn’t act, criminals will continue to write the playbook on how to siphon off America’s economy.
Let’s take back our roads and our supply chain. Pass CORCA now.
• Chris Spear is the president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations.
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