Plugging border's stolen-car flow

Monday, 10 November 2003

Renee Sauer / Staff In Nogales, Sonora, Officers Jesus Ramon Espinosa German, left, and Carmen Aguirre Lopez brief city police. Many stolen U.S. vehicles end up in Mexico

ARIZONA DAILY STAR NOGALES, Sonora - Thousands of vehicles stolen in Arizona each year find their way to Mexico, where they disappear into a world of drug trafficking, people smuggling and insurance fraud.

No one knows how many of the 56,800 vehicles stolen in Arizona end up in Mexico, but last year the U.S. Consulate in Nogales, which covers northern Sonora, helped bring more than 2,000 vehicles back to the United States, said consulate staffer Alonso Mezquital.

Municipal police responded to 475 stolen-vehicle reports last year, and more than 285 vehicles - including about 130 stolen in the United States - were recovered, said Pedro Figueroa, one of four officers assigned to the Nogales, Sonora, Police Department's stolen-cars division.

Identifying a vehicle stolen in the United States has become easier recently with the help of a computerized database provided by the National Insurance Crime Board and Arizona's Border Auto Theft Information Center, or BATIC. It provides information on vehicles stolen in Arizona and is maintained by the Arizona Department of Public Safety's Auto Theft Task Force with a grant from the Arizona Auto Theft Authority.

"If we suspect a car is stolen, we check the numbers and then call them, and they can tell us if it's stolen," Figueroa said.
The task force investigates about 130 vehicles a month, about 50 of those through its border unit. A significant share of stolen vehicles taken to Mexico are used in smuggling or other crimes before being located by law enforcement officials in the United States, said Sgt. Terry Starner, head of the task force's border unit.

Renee Sauer / Staff Cars stolen in the United States don't always disappear once they cross the border into Mexico. Some are recovered and taken to this Mexican Customs lot in Nogales, Sonora.

"Car theft is as big a problem for them as it is for us, and that's why we're getting so much cooperation from Mexico," he said.

The goal is to create a similar registry for Sonora that will provide more up-to-date information that might help U.S. authorities spot stolen vehicles quicker.

He said 60 percent of the vehicles stolen in Arizona are recovered in the state, and the rest just disappear. Many end up in Mexico, but others could be taken to Los Angeles and loaded in a container car headed for Asia.

"They use them; they sell them; they chop them up," Starner said. "Car theft is every bit as big as narcotics are. They ship them all over the world."
That's why the state Legislature created the Arizona Auto Theft Authority, said Mikel Longman, executive director of the authority.
The authority is funded by a $1 fee on vehicle licensing. The money funds law enforcement efforts such as BATIC.

Longman said the authority is also working to develop a system with U.S. Customs that one day could allow the BATIC database to use video license plate images recorded by U.S. Customs and Border Protection cameras that are in place at some of Arizona's border crossings.
That would help catch vehicles before they cross into Mexico or allow U.S. officials to quickly notify Mexican authorities if a stolen car has crossed the border.

The system is still in the future, but the Auto Theft Authority has already started to analyze the data available from the border cameras to try to spot theft trends.

Some of the information isn't surprising: Pickup trucks are popular, most of the stolen vehicles come from Phoenix, and they're most likely to cross on a weekend.

Laura Moreno's family, of Nogales, Ariz., has been hit by car thieves three times over the past five years. The first time, she was visiting a son in Tucson, and her Dodge Ram truck was stolen from a parking lot during daylight. Three years ago, a Dodge car was stolen in Nogales, Ariz. Neither vehicle was recovered.

In January, thieves struck for a third time, as she and her husband slept in their home. Her husband noticed the family's 1999 Ford F-150 pickup was missing when he got up for work and called authorities.

The truck was stopped by Mexican Customs as the thieves were trying to cross into Mexico at about 7 a.m. By noon, the Moreno family had it back.
"They tried to cross it into Mexico but were stopped when they got the red light at the border," said Moreno, explaining how Mexican Customs agents confiscated the vehicle from Mexican nationals.

The Moreno family learned that the truck was in Mexican custody after checking with Mexican authorities with the help of a friend at the Nogales, Sonora, City Hall.

"By the time my husband got there, there was more damage and some things were missing, but at least we got it back," she said.* Contact reporter

Ignacio Ibarra at 806-7746 or at ignacioi@prodigy.net.mx.