Vehicle crime is a multibillion-dollar global industry that fuels organised crime, but a new partnership between INTERPOL and Canada aims to put the brakes on this illicit trade.
Stolen vehicles are often moved across continents, sometimes ending up thousands of kilometres away from where they were stolen, making a coordinated international approach crucial. For organised crime groups, the trade of stolen vehicles and parts can be a low-risk way to fund other criminal activities.
The illicit market in spare parts can even put lives at risk, as illegitimate parts are likely to fall below recognised safety standards.
Project Drive Out, with a budget of €2.4 million, will enhance information sharing between INTERPOL member states, law enforcement agencies and private partners. The objective of the project is to increase the detection of stolen vehicles and spare parts around the world.
The three-year project will also strengthen data analysis by expanding and developing INTERPOL tools that facilitate data exchange between car manufacturers and police. The project will also allow INTERPOL to support participating countries with on-the-ground operations and bolster training on identification and investigative tactics.
Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs in Canada, said, “Auto theft is a crime that knows no borders. That’s why continued collaboration between domestic and international law enforcement partners like INTERPOL is key to recovering Canadians’ stolen property and to disrupting the organized crime groups involved.”
Valdecy Urquiza, INTERPOL’s Secretary General, noted that vehicle crime is not just about stolen cars but “something far more complex, far more dangerous.”
Urquiza added, “It’s about organised crime using those stolen vehicles and parts as currency to fuel a network of illegal activities—from drug trafficking to human smuggling, from the arms trade to acts of terror. This partnership with the Government of Canada represents a step forward, empowering law enforcement across the globe to strike at the heart of a crime that reaches far beyond a single theft. Together, we’re building a safer world.”
INTERPOL’s Stolen Motor Vehicle database, the key law enforcement tool for tackling vehicle crime, will be enhanced as part of Project Drive Out. It currently contains more than 12 million records, allowing police in INTERPOL member countries to run a check against a suspicious vehicle and find out instantly whether it has been reported as stolen. In 2023, approximately 226,000 vehicles globally were identified as stolen through the database, and so far in 2024, the database has been searched more than 356 million times.
Canada has become a major origin point for stolen vehicles in recent years, driven partly by the country’s abundance of in-demand, high-end models like SUVs and crossovers. These vehicles are smuggled to destinations in the Middle East and West Africa, where they are sold or traded.
From February to October 2024, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police received 2,666 alerts about Canadian vehicles and 491 international collaboration requests via INTERPOL’s Stolen Motor Vehicle database.
