‘The Worst I’ve Ever Seen’: Cargo Thefts Have Turned Violent in Pursuit of AI Hardware

During the 25 years Gerardo Pachuca has spent investigating thieves who steal cargo from semitrucks, he says he’s never seen behavior this brazen. The consultant and former Los Angeles sheriff’s detective claims that two times in recent months, robbers stole pricey hardware destined for AI data centers using a confrontational new tactic. It’s left the freight industry on edge.

The incidents involved two different shipments of high-value technology traveling from Silicon Valley to Southern California, according to Pachuca, who says he learned about the thefts from law enforcement authorities. Each truck was tailed by private security professionals driving unmarked escort vehicles, which were supposed to ensure the goods made it to their destinations safely. But hours into one journey, another driver rear-ended the escort in a hit-and-run, forcing it to stop. In the other case, the escort stopped after another car nudged it into a tailspin, a ploy commonly known as a PIT maneuver, and then fled.

Everyone familiar with the “accidents” believes the escorts were deliberately immobilized, according to Pachuca. Once the semitrucks lost their escorts, the drivers proceeded without halting—but not to their planned destinations. They were never heard from again, Pachua says, and millions of dollars in data center gear remains unaccounted for.

WIRED attempted to independently confirm Pachuca's accounts with five state and local law enforcement agencies, but could not because he shared limited information to avoid jeopardizing what he describes as ongoing investigations. But two other people in the cargo industry provided corroborating information.

J.J. Coughlin, chairman of the Southwest Transportation Security Council, a nonprofit intelligence-sharing group, says one of the affected escort companies notified him as soon as its vehicle was attacked while it was guarding “high-value technology.” Danny Ramon, director of intelligence and response at the freight-monitoring software developer Overhaul, says he learned about the rear-ending incident from law enforcement sources days after it happened. He describes the situation as a “coordinated assault” affecting a shipment of “AI hardware.”

Pachuca, Coughlin, and Ramon all say that no one was hurt in the attacks—they assume the truck drivers were in on the scheme, an increasingly common issue—and the perpetrators have yet to be caught. They are all concerned that the isolated cases could turn into an alarming trend—a violent spin on freight crime, now enabled by cyber-based scams and hacks, and targeting the very equipment powering the bleeding edge of the internet.

“It’s the worst I’ve seen,” Pachuca says of cargo theft nationwide. “The methods they are using, the value they are getting, the frequency these crimes are occurring.”