Dennis RomeroA Gone In 60 Seconds-style stolen car ring saw a shipment to Asia disrupted by federal authorities, who seized a near-new Ferrari and other vehicles, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced today.
The 20-car haul at the port of Los Angeles/Long Beach was worth $1.5 million, according to a CBP statement.
Along with a 2010 Ferrari 453 Italia (pictured), agents took …
… models from Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi and Lexus: Many if not most are SUVs.
The CBP says the cars were headed for China (Hong Kong) and Vietnam. They had been listed as “used fitness equipment,” according to authorities.
Credit: CBP
But alert officers assigned to an Outbound Enforcement Team found fairly new cars, leased or purchased with false IDs, headed overseas.
The agency said dealerships, banks and insurance companies had been defrauded in the process.
(Note that baseball great Lenny Dykstra was recently handed three years behind bars for grand theft auto after prosecutors said he leased or bought cars using false information).
Todd C. Owen, CBP's L.A. field operations director:
Credit: CBP
This is an extremely important discovery and it once again demonstrates the alertness and attention to duty CBP officers practice every day.
[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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