FBI says billion-dollar criminal network included cargo theft

FreightWaves reviewed public court records

FreightWaves contacted the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas seeking additional information about the FBI’s cargo theft reference. The office declined additional comment because Anwar’s criminal case remains pending. It instead directed FreightWaves to publicly available court records. The related indictment includes a separate conspiracy charge alleging thefts from trailers, warehouses, distribution centers, freight consolidation facilities and other interstate shipments.

Those court records identify Anwar as Defendant 86 in the broader federal conspiracy case. The indictment charges him with four federal conspiracy offenses involving stolen property, mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. His criminal case remains pending in the Eastern District of Texas.

According to the indictment, prosecutors allege members of the organization obtained electronics through robberies, fraud, identity theft and fraudulent purchases. The filing also alleges participants identified trailers, containers, warehouses and distribution centers before coordinating thefts involving property moving through interstate commerce. Prosecutors allege members later transported those products through interstate and foreign commerce before exporting many of them to buyers in the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong.

Court records describe the alleged operation

According to the related indictment, the organization trafficked cellphones, tablets, laptops, smart watches and other consumer electronics. Prosecutors allege suppliers purchased stolen devices from traffickers before moving them into a larger export operation. The filing also alleges investigators identified more than 5,000 FedEx shipments connected to the alleged export operation. Prosecutors also traced millions of dollars in payments from overseas buyers.

Prosecutors allege device traffickers operated independently and within organized groups. Some allegedly worked for warehouses, shipment companies and authorized electronics distributors. Others allegedly obtained electronic devices through armed robberies and multiple fraud schemes before selling them into the alleged export network.

Prosecutors identify Anwar as an alleged supplier

The indictment naming Anwar as Defendant 86 identifies him as an alleged supplier within the broader conspiracy. Prosecutors associated approximately 3,521 electronic devices with businesses connected to Anwar between January 2019 and December 2020. Those devices carried a combined listed value of approximately $1.85 million. Prosecutors allege Anwar supplied electronic devices to businesses that later exported products through the alleged network.

The filing states AT&T confirmed some of the devices associated with Anwar had been reported stolen. Prosecutors also linked his businesses to retail locations in Dallas and Mesquite. Count Four charges Anwar and numerous co-defendants with conspiracy to transport stolen property in interstate and foreign commerce.

Prosecutors allege participants knowingly transported stolen or fraudulently obtained property valued at more than $5,000. That charge remains pending against Anwar. That indictment does not allege that Anwar personally committed the warehouse or in-transit thefts described in the related federal indictment.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office also directed FreightWaves to a related federal indictment filed in the Eastern District of Texas. That indictment identifies Anwar among suppliers who allegedly sold electronic devices to SCS Supply Chain and RJ Telecom. Prosecutors allege those companies purchased stolen merchandise before transporting products through interstate and foreign commerce.

The related indictment alleges members of the organization identified trailers, containers, warehouses and distribution centers containing valuable consumer products before coordinating thefts. Prosecutors allege participants transported, stored and sold stolen merchandise through domestic resale channels and international export networks. The alleged stolen products included Apple and Samsung smartphones, tablets and smart watches, Yeti coolers and drinkware, Puma footwear, Lenovo and Microsoft laptops, Samsung hospitality televisions, DeWalt power tools and Bissell vacuums.

The public court records provide additional context for the FBI’s statement that investigators targeted transit and cargo theft rings. Those filings allege an organization that combined identity fraud, retail fraud, warehouse thefts, cargo thefts and international resale operations into a single criminal enterprise. The records do not publicly identify Anwar as participating in the specific warehouse or freight thefts described elsewhere in the related indictment. Anwar remains charged with four federal conspiracy offenses and is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

Click here for more articles on cargo theft and freight fraud by Phil Brink.

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