As Americans gear up for fireworks and barbecues today, another group is making plans of a different kind: cargo thieves.
Every year, the days are Independence Day see a notable spike in criminal networks seizing shipments of everything from televisions to energy drinks to vital medical supplies, exploiting the disruptions and reduced oversight that come with the holiday rush.
It’s all part of a growing cargo theft epidemic. Once a sporadic nuisance, it has metastasized into a nationwide criminal enterprise that is bleeding the U.S. supply chain to the tune of more than $35 billion each year. And everyday Americans are the ones footing the bill.
These thieves aren’t just smashing locks in the dead of night. Sophisticated criminal rings are exploiting weaknesses in our digital infrastructure, using ever-evolving cyber fraud and identity theft to impersonate legitimate carriers and hijack loads without ever touching a crowbar — often rerouting freight before it even leaves the warehouse. Others target trucks and trailers at rest stops and distribution centers, threatening the personal safety of drivers who are simply doing their jobs.
The consequences ripple far beyond the loss of goods. Small trucking companies face higher insurance premiums or go out of business. Retailers, already navigating global supply chain headaches, must absorb delayed deliveries and inventory losses. Consumers see price hikes and empty shelves. And for drivers — often the last line of defense — the stress of constant vigilance becomes a daily burden.
Cyber-enabled “strategic theft” is now one of the most insidious and fastest-growing methods of committing cargo crime. When coupled with virtually nonexistent enforcement, it’s a low-risk, very high-reward proposition for these bad actors. Just one in ten thefts ends in an arrest.
That is why Congress must act and pass the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act, a bipartisan bill that would finally give federal authorities the legal framework, resources and cross-agency coordination needed to take this crisis seriously. It is a badly overdue step toward unified national enforcement.
This bill would create a federal task force with the investigative authority to deter these criminal rings. Just as importantly, local law enforcement should be trained and equipped to recognize and respond to cargo theft. Federal funding should support multi-jurisdictional investigations.
We also need better data. Unlike other forms of crime, cargo theft is severely underreported and inconsistently tracked. The Combating Organized Retail Crime Act establishes a national cargo theft database — comprehensive, centralized and transparent — which would be a powerful tool for law enforcement and industry stakeholders alike. As it stands, we’re likely severely underreporting the true scale of the economic damage.
The numbers we do know are concerning. The average value of each cargo theft is more than $200,000, and according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, there’s been a 1,500 percent increase in cargo theft incidents since 2021. Total cargo theft losses increased by 27 percent in 2024 and are projected to rise another 22 percent in 2025.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security have flagged this as a growing national threat — but the theft epidemic rages on, because the real failure is one of enforcement. The penalties for cargo theft are weak. Investigations are rare. Prosecutions are slower than a backed-up port. Cargo thieves must face penalties that reflect the scale of their crimes — not pocket change that comes with a slap on the wrist.
Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) recently said it well: “Eliminating cargo theft will require an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ approach that involves Congress, federal agencies, local law enforcement, and the private sector.”
That all-hands-on-deck approach would have helped Adam Blanchard, CEO of Texas-based Tanager Logistics. As he told members of Congress in February, thieves brokered loads under his company’s name, deceiving both shippers and carriers. They then stole truckloads of Red Bull, diverting them to suspicious warehouses in California and ostensibly shipping them out of the country.
When Blanchard turned to insurance companies, local law enforcement and federal agencies — FBI, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, even the Department of Homeland Security — he was met with a wall of indifference and red tape. This is the same bureaucracy that claims to protect our borders and secure our economy yet can’t address this rampant fraud. It’s unacceptable.
Put bluntly: cargo theft threatens our national security, weakens our economy and brazenly defies law enforcement. Truckers are being targeted, businesses are suffering and the costs are borne by consumers.
The trucking industry has shown its resiliency time and again — through pandemics, natural disasters and economic shocks. We take great pride in delivering America’s freight safely and on time to keep our economy running. But we cannot fight organized cargo crime without the full support and partnership of our federal government.
By passing the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act, Congress can send a clear message: We will not stand by while criminal syndicates hijack our supply chain — we will hunt them down, shut them down and protect the backbone of American commerce.
Chris Spear is the president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations.
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