The scheme has nothing to do with the days of the “truck theft king” Alain Lachapelle. Thefts of goods are now planned behind a computer with sophisticated means. No more need to cut through the fences of a freight yard or seize a semi-trailer parked in a rest area.
“I would tell you that around 60% of trailer thefts are done over the internet,” says former detective lieutenant at the Montreal City Police Service (SPVM) Daniel Picard. This is the biggest scourge at the moment. »
Retired for a decade, Mr. Picard caught many cargo theft regulars during his career before ending his career in the organized crime division. Still well connected, he continues to support trucking companies in search of stolen cargo.
Precious metals, foodstuffs and electronic equipment; nothing stops the criminals if a theft of several hundred thousand dollars is on the horizon. The proof: last March, the Pittsburgh Penguins saw the shipment of mini bobble-head figures bearing the likeness of their former star player Jaromir Jagr – whose jersey had been retired the previous month – being stolen while She was in California. These promotional items were finally able to be distributed when the merchandise was found.
Criminals have become experts at falsifying the bill of lading to appear as a legitimate business. The bill of lading is a legal document between the shipper and a transport company which describes the goods transported, their quantity and their destination.
Access to electronic cargo and equipment message boards, which connect carriers and shippers, provides criminals with the necessary information on what may be worth stealing. Criminals can offer attractive prices to transport cargo.
Everything is planned remotely in this “fraudulent recovery” scheme.
“There are flights like that… There are some,” continues Mr. Picard. You get a trailer of razor blades stolen at $20 for a pack of four blades, it’s very profitable for thieves. »
We are therefore far from the time of Alain Lachapelle and his acolytes. Died in 2022, this criminal, well known to the police, increased the number of thefts in the greater Montreal area using more traditional methods, which earned him the nickname “the king of truck theft”. He was caught several times, notably by Mr. Picard at the end of the 1990s. The current stratagems also mark a break with the more violent events that occurred at the turn of the 2000s, recalls the former lieutenant-detective of the SPVM.
He gives the example of the theft that occurred at the Seagram distillery (LaSalle) in January 2001, where some 2,400 cases of alcohol, whose value was estimated at 1.4 million, were stolen. Threatened with a gun, the security guard of the place was handcuffed and held captive for hours.
According to data compiled by the American firm CargoNet, theft of goods during transport increased by 59% in Canada as well as the United States last year to reach 2,852 incidents. These are events that have been declared to the authorities. Increases were also notable in 2022 (15%) and 2021 (20%). The trend continued during the first three months of the year, with an increase of 46%.
In Canada, more than eight out of ten events were reported in Ontario in 2023, according to the firm, but no one is immune to high-profile scams. Before the theft of more than $20 million in gold bullion in April 2023 at Pearson Airport (Toronto), Montreal had been the scene of two scams involving silver bullion.
The first occurred in 2015 at the port of Montreal while the other occurred at the beginning of 2020 in the borough of LaSalle. The modus operandi described by Mr. Picard had been at the heart of the strategy used by the criminals to steal a container from the Maersk company which contained 596 silver bars – the value of which was estimated at more than 10 million.
The metal box was unloaded in Vancouver before arriving in Montreal by train, finally ending up in the courtyard of a plot of land located on rue Jean-Brillon. According to court documents, the suspects used a “fake warrant” to retrieve the container. The thieves were able to obtain the necessary bill of lading and authorization numbers to avoid arousing suspicion.
“These documents are becoming more and more realistic,” says Martin Burrowes, president of Burrowes Insurance Courtiers, which specializes in trucking and transport logistics. Scammers are very clever. They’re like computer hackers. »
However, it is difficult to have a precise portrait of the situation in Quebec. Based on complaints from his firm, Mr. Burrowes estimates that the trend has been downward in the province for several years, but he does not have any figures. The phenomenon remains a “scourge,” he says.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada indicates that it does not have statistics on the phenomenon. The Laval Police Department invited La Presse to turn to the Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies and the protection of personal information to obtain data. At the time of writing these lines, the SPVM had not yet responded to a request for information on the subject.
The most recent publicized events occurred at Olymel last February. The Berthierville and Trois-Rivières sites were targeted by criminals, who stole three semi-trailers of ham and chicken – shipments that were eventually found. The thieves were no fools. Using tractors stolen from two transport companies, they crashed into the barriers before seizing the semi-trailers and then fleeing.
“It was like the good old days,” says Mr. Picard. It wasn’t much of a plan, but the thieves knew what they were going for. They weren’t amateurs, but close. »
