Again, Vehicle Identity Thieves Resurface At Tin Can Ports

•         Syndicate Based in Belgium
•         Accomplices Found Among Customs Officers, Clearing Agents

A syndicate which specializes in tampering with relevant identity documents of imported second hand vehicles has resurfaced at the Tin Can Island port in Lagos.
Shipping Position Daily investigations revealed that the syndicate which has one leg in Europe is also backed actively by a team of licensed customs agents and some customs officers.
Even though, fingers were pointed at Tin Can port last year  by security official from the United States of America, recent revelations have confirmed that most vehicles; especially trucks which often come in from Europe are tampered with at the port.Our correspondent who has been following the development confirmed that, the identity thieves often remove chassis number of trucks from the port of loading; such numbers are usually passed from one vehicle to the other using multiple documents.
One of the victims of the syndicate who spoke to our correspondent anonymously hinted that the group is firmly rooted in Belgium and that it is from there that vital parts of vehicles such as the chassis number are tampered with.
“I have fallen victim twice and I was able to get my vehicles because of my insistence on not having anything to do with another vehicle whose identity had been swapped with my own”
 Apart from him, it was also discovered that some customs officers also collude with some unscrupulous clearing agents to ensure that such vehicles with false identities and forged document exit the port.
While the PTML command have been fingered in the scam, which is however unknown to the command’s management, other terminals are reportedly not free.
“Why it is common at PTML is because it handle the biggest chunk of vehicle importation”, our source stated. 
The story is coming on the heels of a similar discovery last year, when American police busts a stolen car importation syndicate which included some Nigerians.
As with the recent case, Tin Can ports were also fingered in the shocking discovery which led to  19 suspects including some unidentified Nigerians facing charges for being kingpins of a car theft syndicate which specializes in the theft which are subsequently shipped to ports of some West African countries, especially the Tin Can Island port in Lagos.
More than 200 vehicles valued at about $6 million recovered from the syndicates from New Jersey, New York, and Kansas in an elaborate scheme that retagged and exported hot cars with bogus papers to various destinations in West Africa. US security operatives also tagged it as, ‘identity theft’.
According to the prosecutors, a member of the gang who was simply identified as Hope Kantete, 42 , usually “arranged for legitimate-looking paperwork, shipping manifests and VIN numbers for the three cars, which were subsequently shipped to Tin Can Island, a port in the city of Lagos, Nigeria. All three were sent through an international shipping company on Sept. 12. They arrived in Nigeria in October.”
Shipping Position Daily learnt that the strings of theft of luxury cars from different states in the US have been traced to Nigerian port of Tin Can.
The cars were given a new VIN number, just as the trucks are now being given new chassis numbers.

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