US News Metro Long Island Politics

Sports NFL MLB Olympics NBA NHL College Football College Basketball WNBA

Business Personal Finance

Entertainment TV Movies Music Celebrities Awards Theater

Lifestyle Weird But True Sex & Relationships Viral Trends Human Interest Parenting Fashion & Beauty Food & Drink Travel

Health Wellness Fitness Health Care Medicine Men’s Health Women’s Health Mental Health Nutrition

Science Space Environment Wildlife Archaeology

Today’s Paper Covers Columnists Horoscopes Crosswords & Games Sports Odds Podcasts Careers

Email Newsletters Official Store Home Delivery Tips

Switch between CA and NY editions here.

How cargo thieves are hijacking California — and what we can do about it

California’s economy helps keep America running — and criminals know it.

Organized cargo theft has exploded across the state, targeting freight infrastructure.

But we can stop it — with new, tough federal legislation.

From the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, to the rail corridors and highways that crisscross the Central Valley, more goods move through California than any other state in the nation.

Our farms, factories, energy producers, and retailers depend on a freight network that works — safely, efficiently, and without criminal interference.

Today, that system is under a coordinated attack by sophisticated criminal networks that operate across state lines with little fear of consequence.

These are not isolated thefts or petty crimes.

They are deliberate, repeat-driven operations designed to exploit gaps in federal law and weak coordination among enforcement agencies across different levels of government.

Even Gov. Gavin Newsom has admitted the problem.

Visiting a site where stolen cargo was strewn across rail tracks in 2022, he said: “I see what everybody’s seeing, asking myself, what the hell is going on? It looks like a Third World country.”

That reality is why momentum is growing on Capitol Hill to support stronger tools to combat cargo and supply-chain theft, including bipartisan federal efforts to improve enforcement coordination and dismantle organized theft rings.

Criminal networks don’t respect jurisdictional boundaries — and California cannot rely on a patchwork response when the problem is national in scope.

The impact is felt........

© New York Post