Truck Hijacking 101

In my early 1980s trucking years, I was arrested for traffic warrants and served time in the Maricopa county jail. Back then, I kept multiple CDL licenses under different alias names. I had used the same loophole illegal aliens use to get a state ID. You present a fake birth certificate, fake social security cards (easily procured from the black market; any Hispanic street drug dealer can point you in the right direction after you pay his 411 fee). So I was walking on this crime area of Phoenix after spending time with a lady in the world's oldest profession. My semi truck was parked in a public street by warehouses and factories, making it look like I was there to deliver or pickup a load. I left my alias IDs in the truck and was carrying my legit CDL. I didn't anticipate getting stopped while walking on public street. Phoenix PD claimed I fit the description of an APB suspect, so they asked to see my ID, and a traffic warrant from Flagstaff came up. I paid that ticket, but a court clerical error forgot to update the system after the check had cleared. Lesson learned, after the check clears, contact the court to confirm they updated their system to show the ticket was paid. So I'm sitting in jail, waiting to see the judge while ####-chatting with the other inmates. Just to make it look like I'm a tough guy, I tell them I'm here for assault &battery for brawling in a bar, not traffic warrants. Word spreads to the other inmates "…hey, this vato here for banging (Spanish slang for street fighting) is a trucker." This muscular Mexican body builder walks up to me and says "I hear you drive trucks, what kind?" Then he offers me a job that pays double of what I usually earn in a week. After I'm released from jail, I make contact with other Hispanic truckers who explain the rules. Most important, NEVER ask questions, just do as you're told. Questions can be interpreted to mean you're undercover police or FBI, which means you disappear and become another unsolved missing persons report (assuming someone misses you & files the report). So my job was simple. After we unload a trailer, we fill it with junk tires, then I drive the tractor-trailer full of junk tires and abandon it at least 10 miles away. On some nights, the trailer is empty, but usually its full of junk tires, hazmat waste, compact trash that's suppose to go to the landfill, industrial or bio-hazard waste, etc…. On some loads, I can smell the stench of decomposing tissue, which I suspect is someone who had asked too much questions. My sense of self preservation tells me I should not ask what the smell is. One guy ask me-- "aren't you wondering what that smell is?" and I reply -- "there's a dead dog or cat somewhere in that load." The trailers with the stench of decomposing flesh, I haul farther out of city limits, drop the trailer, then abandon the tractor somewhere. A Mexican trucker hooks up to the trailer and hauls it someplace else. From the very first day I started, I figure the equipment we were unloading were hijacked. Our warehouse was in an industrial area with plenty of truck traffic delivering or picking up from other warehouses. On some days, our stolen inventory of goods were loaded onto another truck-n-trailer with east coast license tags. This crew (team drivers) spoke with a Russian accent. Once, it was a guy with British accent and his partner was a nice looking gal with a French accent (husband-wife team?) The trucks with east coast tags were clearly European or Russian expatriates. I learned a few years later INS was handing out working visas to foreign-born truckers in response to USA driver (turnover) shortage . Though they're required to produce documents they've never been arrested in their life, the INS believes there's no such thing as fraudulent documents, or that criminal records can be deleted from the system after bribing public officials. Such corruption only happens in DVD movies & fiction paperback novels, but never in real life. After a month, they ask me how I feel about a promotion and more $$. I'm suppose to knock on trucks parked in secluded areas (no witnesses to call 911) scare the driver to comply after pointing a gun at him, tie him up & blindfold him in the sleeper bunk, leave him someplace where someone will eventually come along and rescue him, then drive the rig with retail merchandise back to the warehouse. I agreed on the condition we don't hit owner operators; we only target Swift, Knight, JB hunt, Schneider, etc… company drivers. Boss says-- "those trucks have satellite tracking" and I reply-- "I cut the cable wires with a bolt cutter, then the signal is lost." and he says-- "oh, you planned this out already. Planners like you will move ahead in my crew. I'm thinking of expanding and starting a crew in another city, soon as I get the OK. We don't want to start a turf war with other crews." From this, I surmise there are numerous truck hijack operations in cities across the USA, but these highly organized professional criminals schedule a meeting with other professional truck hijackers to agree on not encroaching on each others' territory, similar to drug gangs holding a meeting with rival drug gangs to agree on not selling on each others drug territory. From personal observation, stolen merchandise end up at swap meets, Ebay, Craigslist, neighborhood garage sales, etc…. When I go out on a hijack mission, we have a list of trailer numbers, company name on the trailer, and highway routes they're likely going to pass through. In the daytime, we're perched on a high vantage point with binoculars, looking down at a truck stop, rest area, or where ever large number of truckers congregate. When we spot a trailer listed on our target sheet, we follow it and wait for the driver to park in seclusion. Some jobs, I realize its an owner operator, so I say "I want out" and they drop me off on a corner and I take the bus or hitch a ride to get home. My neighbors and close friends are owner operators, so I know it can put them out of business to loose a load to hijackers. Giant carriers, I'm sure can afford the lost because they're often self insured. They buy up or setup a dummy insurance company, then have that as their insurance provider. A $50K load lost to hijackers, they can easily recoup in a day or two. Owner operators, their insurance goes through the roof, so I leave them alone. if you're an O/O, beware -- I'm a rare minority; the vast majority of hijackers are only concerned with $$$ so it makes no difference whether you're a company driver or O/O. If you're hauling retail merchandise, and you're stupid enough to park in seclusion, then you're fare game. Months later after I leave truck hijacking behind and return to honest legit work, I realized the reason we worked under the cover of darkness is because this is when LEOs (law enforcement officers) are the least sharp in mind. Much as OTR truckers are falling asleep behind the wheel because their biological time clock is saying "time to go to sleep," LEOs are prone to the same weakness. Boredomeness sets in, and they don't pay attention to trailer numbers. On some nights, I'm sitting on a red light, a black-n-white pulls up next to me, he turns on the dome light to reach for something, and I clearly see a clipboard with the words "hot sheet" written on top, laying on the passenger seat. The cop never turns his head to look at my trailer number, company name on tractor, then check to see if I'm on the hot sheet list. I thought we worked under the cover of darkness to make it harder to identify the tractor unit number, trailer number, and tags. Stolen trucks-n-trailers are driving past in front of them, and they never reach for the hot-sheet list. So on my days off, I follow black-n-white patrol units and observe from a distance with binoculars. I conduct my observation study to confirm my suspicion. Cops only reach for the hot sheet in the daytime only. Due to limited visibility, I realize cops have a habit of never checking the hot sheet unless its a routine traffic stop. Thus, truck hijackers are exploiting a psychological weakness among LEOs. In late 1990s when I became an O/O, I went to HomeDepot to hire a laborer who'd unload my trailer. I recognize this one guy from my truck hijacking days. So I hire him, then after confirming we both have left that line of work, I say-- "bossman had quit the trade, it looks like." He replies, "oh, you didn't hear, we almost got caught in a sting. We bring this one load in, bossman holds up this do-hickey, then gives the signal LEOs are moving in. The load was transmitting a signal, but we didn't see a satellite dish. Seconds after we ran down the flood control drainage, we could hear someone giving the "CLEAR" signal. They missed us by 10 seconds." From this, I gather there was a homing transmitter inside the trailer. LEOs were following, but they held back waiting for backup. As they were surrounding the warehouse, the crew instigated the ESCAPE PLAN. Bossman briefed us on how LEOs work; surround the building, cut off all exits, then capture or kill the targets. Turns out bossman use to be a LEO himself. He claims bossman had informants in FBI, city police, sheriff, ATF, etc… to warn him if they've sniffed him out. None of his inside contacts warned him this was going down, meaning LEOs suspect truck hijackers are getting intel from one of their own. I ask -- "how did we get the intel on which trailers had merchandise and the highways they're traveling?" He replies --"I use to work for a temp agency; they send me to a warehouses to load trailers. Most of the cartons have the final destination written on them. I memorize the trailer number, company name on the trailer, final city destination, relay this info to bossman, I earned $100 per trailer. If they capture the load, I get at least $5K or more, depending on the value of the score."

Beware drivers, those guys loading your trailers may be part of organized truck hijacker teams. They don't mind the low illegal alien pay because most of their earnings are from passing intel to hijackers on your trailer number, what you're carrying, and your final destination. Dispatch tells you to take the shortest route to save on fuel co$t, which truck hijackers already know, so they'll be waiting for you somewhere along your route. They'll have binoculars to read your trailer number as you pass them, or while surveying truck stops, rest areas, restaurant diners, etc… from a distance in an elevated vantage point. These hijackers are never caught because the leaders are active or retired LEOs with contacts in every LE org to warn them investigators are closing in.

 

Statute of limitations is 10 years for theft of interstate commerce. They don't have a case against me, and even if they haul me in, I'd say "I plead the 5th, and I'm not answering questions until I have an attorney here." Now if someone ended up dead, there's no statute of limitations on murder. To the best of my knowledge, no one was ever killed on my jobs. If a dead body was found, they'll need fingerprints, hair fibers, etc.... forensic evidence to prove I was at the scene of the crime.