NJ State Police announced they put the brakes on an international carjacking scheme that saw cars like Jaguars, Land Rovers and Porsches stolen of the streets and sent to West Africa. According to the Star-Leger, "Each carjacker was paid up to $8,000 per vehicle" while ringleaders would get "six-figure sums" once the vehicles made it overseas.
The police seized 160 vehicles worth $8 million in "Operated Jacked"—140 of the cars were found at Port Newark, Port Elizabeth and Howland Hook Seaport in Staten Island. Acting state attorney general John Hoffman "described one carjacking in Newark in which a woman’s car was stolen when she left it running to go into a store — with her 15-year-old daughter inside. The carjackers let the girl go unharmed, he said." In another incident, a woman was pistol-whipped until she was bloody.
The crews were always after keys or key fobs. From the attorney general's press release:
Carjackers would often target victims by bumping their vehicles from behind on the highway. When victims stopped to address the situation, the carjackers would take their key by force or threat, or simply jump into the vehicle and drive off if the key was left inside. Guns or other weapons were used in a number of carjackings. Thefts also occurred at carwashes and at airports, where drivers would leave cars running at terminals and get out to unload luggage.
Cars were stolen from manufacturers as they sat on carrier-trailers in lots, and other times keys and cars were stolen from car dealerships. Thieves would hold up valets to get keys and vehicles, or grab keys from valet boxes. Thieves also would search wealthy neighborhoods and find high-end cars unlocked with the key fob in the glove box. In other cases, individuals in the ring would obtain cars through fraud, using bad checks to purchase cars from new and used car dealerships.
Then the cars would "cool off" at hospital parking garages, residential backyards, warehouses and private storage garages while the crew made sure they didn't have tracking devices or removed tracking devices. After all that, the cars would be transferred over to fences, who sold some domestically but sent most of them abroad.
Twenty-three people were arrested, six others are fugitives. Hoffman said, "We will not allow this threat to go unanswered and un-dealt with. We will prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. They will get what they deserve."
