By Staff
November 7th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
During a media event earlier today Detective Sergeant Dave Costantini , 1 District Criminal Investigations Bureau explained how some pervasive criminal activity is costing all of us a small fortune – $5 billion which is the value of the goods stolen through cargo theft.
So far this year there have been 1336 cargo thefts in the country with 90% of them taking place in the GTA.
The media event was to create awareness of Cargo Theft – a crime which affects everyone.
The event was a joint Regional Police – Crime Stoppers event.
Crime Stoppers operations across Canada have undertaken numerous campaigns to combat various crimes including human trafficking, potential terrorist activity, targeting international fugitives and identifying criminal who damage the environment.
Commercial crime detectives who took part in the media event explained that cargo theft is a very organized criminal activity.
The actual stealing of the trucks is just the start. “There are occasions when the thieves will steal a truck load of a product that they have already sold to someone.
On other occasions a truck will be stolen and driven to a location and left for a few days while any search for the truck cools off.
The thieves will return – move the cargo from the stolen truck onto another truck – sometimes several small trucks and get taken to whoever has agreed to buy the stolen goods.
It is a very organized theft – there are numerous people involved starting with the drivers trhat steal the trucks to the people who move the goods in the truck through commercial networks.
At the end of the chain is a consumer who buys something that might have been stolen.
Criminals are drawn to cargo crime because of the perceived low risk and high reward. However, profits from cargo theft fuel a wide array of criminal activity including incidents of homicide.
The trucking industry transports 90 percent of food products and consumer goods that Canadian’s require. We certainly know that – we have to jockey with those trucks on the major highways every day.
Crime Stoppers programs allow members of the public who may be reluctant to get involved directly with police to give any information anonymously via the tip line.
The program also discourages criminals from committing crimes because they never know who may be watching and ready to call the anonymous tip line.
Crime Stoppers Halton has played a part in 18,251 arrests. Property worth $2,734,747 has been recovered. Drugs worth $18,098,333 have been seized
Canada’s first Crime Stoppers program was set up in Calgary, Alberta in 1982. A year later Hamilton was the first city to establish a Crime Stoppers program in Ontario.
A former Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner, Thomas O’Grady, said Crime Stoppers is ranked with fingerprints and DNA as the top three innovations in modern day policing.