Detroit Auto‑Theft Ring Indicted for Shipping Stolen Cars to the Middle East
Law enforcement officials have warned that a growing trend of international organized‑crime groups are smuggling stolen vehicles out of Detroit and into the Middle East. Prosecutors say the criminals are even turning to juveniles to carry out the work.
In a federal indictment released in September, eight men were charged with running a sophisticated car‑theft and smuggling operation in the Motor City. The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan said the men conspired among themselves and with outside parties to move stolen vehicles to one of four commercial or industrial lots around Detroit. From there, at least two of the stolen cars were stuffed into shipping containers and sent by freight or rail to nearby port cities. The containers were then shipped overseas, with prosecutors pointing to the Middle East—including locations such as Iraq and Dubai—as the final destination.
“[Many of] the cars were shipped to the Middle East,” said Dearborn Police Cpl. Daniel Bartok to FOX 2. “The suspects have been identified as Haydar Al Haydari, 41, of Garden City; Karar Alnakash, 43, of Detroit; Abbas Al Othman, 42, of Dearborn Heights; Mohammed Al Hilo, 36, of Detroit; Moustapha Al Fetlawi, 46, of Dearborn Heights; Terrill Davis, 33, of Detroit; David Roshinsky Williams, 32, of Harper Woods; and Mohammed Al Abboodi, 35, of Detroit."
All eight men face a single count of conspiracy to transport stolen vehicles and one or more counts of transporting a stolen vehicle. ICE HSI Detroit acting Special Agent in Charge Matthew Stentz told reporters the agency has recovered over 350 stolen vehicles. “Behind every one of those stolen cars is a victim,” Stentz said. “Our HSI special agents and law‑enforcement partners will continue to do the work necessary to take down these operations that harm everyday Americans.”
This indictment follows a surge in vehicle thefts across Michigan in recent years. In 2023, the state reported 28,408 motor‑vehicle thefts, a 4.1% increase from the prior year and a 48.4% jump compared with the past five years, according to the Michigan Department of Attorney General. While the office has yet to respond to requests for comment, experts point to the city’s status as a port hub as a key factor.
“I think any large metropolitan area has some auto‑theft issues,” said Kyle McPhee, a stolen‑vehicle identification specialist and retired detective sergeant with the Michigan State Police. “Detroit happens to be a port city. You can put something in a shipping container, and it can be at a port in no time.”
McPhee explained that organized‑crime groups often target vehicles from manufacturer lots or cars parked on the street, and they recruit juveniles because the legal penalties for minors are lighter. “They’ll pay juveniles very little to go out and bring these vehicles back to wherever they’re going to cool them off,” he said. “They’ll remove any tracking devices and they might cut the vehicle up so they can put it in a shipping container and call it ‘auto parts.’ Then when it gets to its destination, they might reassemble it.”
When a shipping container arrives at a port, McPhee said criminals frequently forge manifest logs to mislead customs officials. “They’ll say ‘household goods,’ and there might be five cars in there and two mattresses,” he added.
“The process makes it nearly impossible for authorities to verify the contents of each of the millions of containers passing through each port every year,” McPhee warned. “They have backscatter machines and x‑rays that look into the shipping containers, but you’re talking about a million shipping containers on some of these ports. It’s tough.”
The rise in Michigan auto theft prompted state officials to launch the Auto Fraud Task Force (AFTF) earlier this year. The task force aims to fight both insurance fraud and large‑scale theft operations in Metro Detroit by coordinating among law‑enforcement agencies across the region. “With the rise of auto thefts across our communities, expanding the Auto Fraud Task Force is an important step to strengthen our fight against both vehicle theft and insurance fraud, crimes that impact far too many Michigan residents each year,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said. “Through this new structure, we are enhancing our efforts to dismantle these sophisticated, organized auto‑crime enterprises across our state.”
As authorities work to intercept stolen vehicles before they enter shipping containers and investigate how domestic criminal groups cooperate with overseas partners, McPhee highlighted that money drives the uptick. “The one key connection is somebody’s getting paid,” he told Fox News Digital. “There’s money to be made. So if you have a local organized gang, they can be connected internationally to another group very easily. We have the internet, it’s not hard.”
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