U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in the Baltimore Field Office recovered 307 stolen vehicles at seaports between Philadelphia and Norfolk, Va., during fiscal year 2025, a 23 percent increase over the previous year’s stolen vehicle recoveries. Collectively, these recovered vehicles were valued at $14.5 million.
CBP’s Baltimore Field Office covers an area from Trenton, N.J., to the Virginia – North Carolina state line, and includes busy commercial seaports in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. It is CBP’s second busiest region for recovering stolen vehicle exports behind only CBP’s New York Field Office.
Nationally, CBP officers saw a slight increase in stolen vehicle export recoveries last year despite the National Insurance Crime Bureau reporting a 23% decrease of auto theft across the country to the lowest level in decades. CBP officers recovered 1,251 stolen vehicle exports in fiscal year 2025 compared to 1,244 stolen vehicle export recoveries in 2024.
Auto theft is not just a local crime. It is a transnational criminal enterprise that fuels other illegal activities and causes immense distress to victims.
“Auto theft victimizes our nation’s citizens, dealerships, and rental companies, and Customs and Border Protection officers remain committed to combating transnational criminal organizations who are profiting on the international trade in stolen vehicles,” said Matthew Suarez, CBP’s Acting Director of Field Operations in Baltimore. “We want to make this perfectly clear, our seaports are not gateways for criminal organizations to export stolen vehicles or other illicit products.”
Identifying, degrading, and disrupting transnational criminal networks requires a multi-layered enforcement strategy that combines analytics, intelligence, non-intrusive imaging of export shipping containers, and on-the-ground officer expertise.
CBP officers conduct rigorous examinations on exports destined to overseas markets. CBP officers scan shipping containers to ensure that manifest documentation matches each container’s contents, compare vehicle export documentation and vehicle identification numbers to vehicles presented for examination, and query law enforcement databases for VINs connected to stolen vehicle reports.
When CBP officers identify and detain a stolen vehicle, officers share details with partner law enforcement agencies to initiate an investigation or to add to an open investigation. Officers also work with lawful owners, whether they are the registered owner or the insurance company, to return the vehicles.
The following bullets provide insight into CBP Baltimore Field Office’s stolen vehicle recoveries in 2025. Media can compare this year’s data to 2024 recovered stolen vehicle recovery results.
- The Area Port of Norfolk-Newport News is ranked #2 nationally in stolen vehicle recoveries with 163 vehicles, valued at about $8.8 million.
- The Area Port of Baltimore is ranked #3 nationally with 122 stolen vehicle recoveries, valued at about $5.2 million.
- The Area Port of Philadelphia and the Port of Wilmington, Del., recovered a combined 22 stolen vehicles that were collectively valued at about $500,000.
- 65%, or 201 stolen vehicles, were destined to West Africa — Ghana (102), Nigeria (39), Togo (27), Guinea (9), Benin (8), Liberia (7), Ivory Coast (6), and Senegal (3).
- 20%, or 61 vehicles, were destined to Southwest Asia – Iraq (23 vehicles), Turkey (22 vehicles), United Arab Emirates (15 vehicles), and Lebanon (1 vehicle). Southwest Asia is a growing destination market for stolen vehicle exports.
- SUVs continue as a priority target vehicle type, accounting for 73% (224 vehicles) of recovered stolen vehicles.
- The demand for late model vehicles remains high – 84%, or 258 vehicles, were from model years 2020 through 2025.
- The vehicles represent 101 unique models, including passenger vehicles, heavy machinery, and motorcycles.
- Honda CRV (44 vehicles), Toyota Highlander (24 vehicles), Dodge Durango (19), and Land Rover Range Rover Sport (11 vehicles) were the most popular models.
- The five recovered vehicles with the highest assessed value include:
- 2024 Lamborghini Urus, $269,885, in Norfolk destined to United Arab Emirates
- 2021 Bentley Bentayga Speed, $249,175, in Norfolk destined to United Arab Emirates
- 2024 Cadillac Escalade, $242,150, in Norfolk destined to United Arab Emirates
- 2017 Ferrari 488 Spider, $239,100, in Baltimore destined to Ghana
- 2024 Mercedes Benz S680, $212,547, in Norfolk destined to Turkey
CBP’s border security mission is led at our nation’s Ports of Entry by CBP officers and agriculture specialists from the Office of Field Operations. CBP screens international travelers and cargo and searches for illicit narcotics, unreported currency, weapons, counterfeit consumer goods, prohibited agriculture, invasive weeds and pests, and other illicit products that could potentially harm the American public, U.S. businesses, and our nation’s safety and economic vitality.
