Rail Cargo Theft

Riding with the California Highway Patrol: Inside the New Era of Rail Cargo Theft

Rail cargo theft in the United States is often thought of as a relic of the past, a scene from an old Western: outlaws on horseback robbing steam locomotives in the middle of nowhere. The reality in 2025 is far more complex — and far more organized.

During a recent ride-along with the California Highway Patrol (CHP) Cargo Theft Task Force, I witnessed firsthand how modern rail theft operates and why it has become one of the most pressing, yet under-discussed, threats to today’s supply chains.

A Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight

The day began not in the field, but in an office surrounded by case files and screens. Each new cargo theft report is a puzzle: motor carrier (MC) numbers to vet, driver identities to verify, license plates to run, phone numbers to cross-check, and bills of lading (BOLs) to scrutinize.

Investigators sort through this data to distinguish legitimate carriers and drivers from fabricated identities and recycled shell companies. Many of these entities are short-lived by design: created, used for a handful of loads, then discarded or sold once they are flagged or “freight guarded.”

Only after this desk work did we head out to the rail lines and that is where the scale of the problem truly came into focus.

A Desert of Discarded Freight

In the Mojave Desert, the rail corridors tell their own story. Along remote stretches of track, the ground is littered with boxes, packaging, straps, and discarded cartons. Much of it represents freight that thieves deemed too low in value to be worth carrying away: dog supplies, apparel, shoes, batteries, and more.

This is not an isolated hotspot. It is the visible residue of a widespread pattern of theft occurring across long, lightly monitored segments of track in California, Arizona, Texas, and beyond.

According to industry data, rail cargo theft in the U.S. rose approximately 40% in 2024, with more than 65,000 reported incidents, roughly 180 thefts per day. The estimated direct losses of over $100 million do not capture the full downstream impact: higher insurance premiums, increased security costs, production delays, stockouts, and brand damage that ultimately affect both shippers and consumers.

How Modern Rail Theft Works

Today’s rail thieves are neither opportunistic loners nor unsophisticated scavengers. In many cases, they are part of organized, multi-person crews who combine physical tools with digital coordination.

Common tactics include:

• Boarding slow-moving trains: Thieves jump onto trains when they are moving slowly, for example, when climbing a grade or passing through a congested junction and move from car to car.

• Defeating seals and locks: Using handheld grinders, saws, and bolt cutters, they remove both standard and high-security seals to open container doors and quickly inspect contents.

• Marking targeted containers: When they identify desirable freight - electronics, footwear, tools, building materials like copper spools - they often close the container and mark it with something as simple as a shoelace. This signaling allows crew members to locate high-value containers later when the train stops.

• Forcing stops: In some cases, crews will deliberately trigger stoppages by tampering with air or brake lines, or even setting fires, causing one train to halt and others behind it to stack up.

• Staging and recovery: Freight is tossed from the train into nearby brush or open areas and later collected by vehicles that have been staged in advance. Goods are then funneled into secondary markets, including informal resale channels and, at times, unscrupulous recycling or warehouse operations.

Given that trains can be up to three miles long and traverse extremely remote terrain, law enforcement response times and coverage are constant challenges.

The Role of the CHP Task Force

The CHP Cargo Theft Task Force operates in this environment with a relatively small team responsible for a vast geographic region stretching from the high desert to the Mexican border and east toward Arizona. Their mission is to uncover organized theft activity, recover stolen freight, and build prosecutable cases against the individuals and networks behind these crimes.

They do not work alone. The task force collaborates closely with:

• Railroad police units (such as those from BNSF and Union Pacific), which employ surveillance cameras with AI-based object and door-open detection, drones, thermal imaging, K9 units, and officers riding on the trains themselves.

• Local, state, and federal agencies, sharing intelligence and coordinating investigations that often cross state lines.

On the digital side, the task force uses tools that are familiar to many brokers and shippers. These include:

• Carrier vetting and fraud prevention platforms, such as Descartes MyCarrierPortal™, to verify MC numbers, carrier addresses, and contact details, and to assess carrier history and risk.

• CargoNet and similar intelligence networks to connect seemingly isolated incidents into larger patterns tied to specific drivers, carriers, or criminal groups.

• License Plate Readers (LPRs) to identify plate-swapping behavior and trace the movement of suspect tractors and trailers.

• Phone and identity analysis to distinguish legitimate drivers from fictitious identities or burner-phone accounts.

In short, the same tools that brokers use proactively to protect their businesses are being used reactively by law enforcement to investigate and prosecute cargo theft.

Beyond the Rail: The Trucking Connection

A critical point often overlooked is that the risk does not end when freight leaves the rail network. In many cases, stolen freight is picked up in trucks at designated points along the rail line or diverted during over-the-road segments.

Here, the same fraud patterns repeatedly surface:

• Identity theft of established carriers and brokers.

• Double brokering, where loads are unlawfully reassigned and visibility is lost.

• VOIP-based “synthetic” driver profiles, created to obscure true identities and enable multiple fraudulent accounts.

• Data spoofing and false documentation, including altered insurance certificates and misrepresented equipment information.

Without robust vetting of carriers, drivers, and trip-level behavior, organizations are left exposed not only to theft but also to complex liability and claims disputes.

What Shippers and Brokers Can Do

While the scale of rail theft and cargo fraud can feel overwhelming, there are concrete measures shippers and brokers can take to reduce exposure and mitigate impact:

1. Strengthen Physical Security

2. Enhance Visibility Through Technology

3. Modernize Carrier and Driver Vetting

4. Build Relationships with Law Enforcement and Industry Networks

A Shared Responsibility

From luxury goods to basic apparel to building materials, rail theft impacts every link in the supply chain — and, ultimately, every consumer. The rising frequency and sophistication of these crimes are forcing the industry to rethink what “security” means in an era where both physical and digital vulnerabilities can be exploited.

Looking ahead, it is clear that lasting progress will require:

• Sustained law enforcement focus and dedicated federal support to tackle transnational and multi-state criminal organizations.

• Harsher penalties and stronger enforcement tools to increase the risk side of the “risk versus reward” equation driving much of this activity.

• Deeper collaboration among shippers, brokers, rail operators, law enforcement, insurers, and technology providers to share data, close gaps, and create a less hospitable environment for cargo thieves.

My time with the California Highway Patrol’s Cargo Theft Task Force was eye-opening. It underscored the immense pressure placed on a relatively small number of investigators, the creativity and audacity of modern criminal networks, and the critical role that data, technology, and collaboration can play in fighting back.

Rail theft may no longer look like a scene out of a Western, but in many ways, it is still the Wild West, just with different tools, different tactics, and much higher stakes.

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