International auto theft ring busted in Alberta, Quebec

Alberta police have busted an international auto theft ring responsible for the theft of more than 100high-end trucks,SUVs, and luxury sedans from Quebec motorists.

The ring was highly organized, with some people assigned to stealing particular makes of vehicles, others with manufacturing counterfeitvehicle identification papers, and others responsible for registrations and legitimizing the vehicles,said Det. Stewart Kirtio, with the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams, orALERT, which led theinvestigation.

The ring would steal vehiclesin Quebec, then re-identify them usingcounterfeit vehicles' identification numbers.

The vehicles would then be registered byfederally numbered corporations at registries in Alberta and other provinces usingfraudulent bills of sale and new vehicle information statementscards.

The vehicles would be re-registered in Quebec and sold at steep discounts through a network of friends and associates.

"Driving down the road, a normal police officer is not going to know that's a stolen vehicle," Kirtio said.

But while a fewof the buyers of the vehicles might be unwitting victims, most buyers would knowthe vehicles were stolen, hesaid.

Half of vehicles recovered

So far, police have recovered 53 of the stolen vehicles mainly in Quebec, but also inEdmonton, Calgary and Fort McMurray, Kirtiosaid.

Seven of the vehicles were traced to Ghana in Africa, and two more were intercepted en route toCostaRica.

The ring, which had tiesto organized crime, ran a complex scheme that took investigators over a year to unravel, Kirtiosaid.

The sophisticated fraudbegan to unravel in November 2012 when aQuebec registry noticed some peculiarities involving vehicles registered in Alberta and Quebec andpassed the concerns on toService Alberta.

"They were able to determine that these vehicles have never been manufactured," Kirtiosaid.

Several Alberta and Quebec suspects have been identified, and investigators are in the process of recommending charges in consultation with crown prosecutors, hesaid.

Police estimate the value of the recovered vehicles exceeds $3 million.