•See the countries receiving stolen vehicles
• Len Green of Toronto woke up to a very surprising call early one morning. A year ago, thieves had snagged his Acura from his driveway. The caller, David Common of the CBC, was sitting in Green’s old car. He’d found the stolen car in Africa.
Common asked, “Does this look like your car?” Green confirmed, “That’s it!”
After Common filmed a walk around the vehicle parked in Ghana, Green said, “I can’t believe it. And my documents and everything are still in there (the glovebox). That’s crazy.”
It’s certainly crazy. But Green is far from alone.
The billion-dollar industry hiding in plain sight
Auto theft in Canada and the U.S. is one of organized crime’s favorite side hustles. And business is booming. Detective Mark Haywood of Peel Police put it plainly: “A large portion of them are actually leaving the country.” He added, “You’ll see about 80 percent of them going out through the ports.”
Deputy Chief Nick Milinovich explained why: “It’s much easier to sell 15 cars on the black market than it is to sell 15 keys of cocaine or 15 illegal guns.” He added, “In 2022, there was over a billion dollars worth of vehicles that were stolen across Canada.”
You read that right. Over one billion in losses. In Toronto alone, thieves took 27,000 cars in a single year. That’s one stolen every 17 minutes. And where do those cars go?
According to Haywood: “We’re seeing a lot of them go to the UAE to Dubai. Nigeria is a hotbed for that. Ghana is another place they’re ending up in.”
Which brings us back to Len Green. His Acura turned up in a car lot in Ghana. His documents were still in the glovebox.
How to move a stolen car to Africa in under 48 hours
Organized crews pull this off in less than two days. First, they track a vehicle with GPS—sometimes attached to the frame at a mall. Then they return at night, crack the car open using a relay attack or the OBD port, and drive it away.
The car disappears into a shipping container. Then it’s trucked or railed to the Port of Montreal. From there, it sets sail for a new life. Officials in Ghana say it’s happening constantly. CBC reporters even spotted stolen vehicles still wearing their Quebec license plates on public roads. Used car lots are packed with vehicles that are likely stolen from North America. But the hardworking officers of Ghana’s Economic and Organized Crime Office are cracking down. In just one lot, Ghanian authorities showed CBC over 40 stolen cars that they’d recovered.
These cars stolen from North America aren’t cheap rides. Think Range Rovers, Lexus RXs, Toyota Highlanders, Honda CR-Vs, and Ram trucks. All stolen. One official summed it up: “Push-button start SUVs or pickup trucks are really the targeted vehicles.”
But Ghana’s anti-crime office says it needs Canada to do more. Alex Lindsey said, “I think the Canadian ports need to be more proactive in trying to stop it before even it gets down here.”
The officials are working with the USA’s FBI. That Bureau shares lists of vehicles stolen from both the USA and Canada, which Ghanian authorities use to cross check cars for sale locally. But deputy director Abdullah Bashiru Dapilah said Canada could be doing more “No Canadian agency has approached us directly or made a formal complaint.” Until these governments can work together, the stolen car to Africa pipeline keeps humming. You can see the CBC’s investigation in the video below: