Members of the criminal ring rented luxury sedans, sport utility vehicles and other cars from rental car chains in Michigan and Ohio and then drove them into Canada, according to an indictment unsealed on Wednesday.
There they filed police reports claiming that the vehicles had been either carjacked or stolen in the Detroit area, authorities said.
The arrests followed a two-year investigation by the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
“Criminal groups often believe they are employing ingenious techniques to further their illicit activity,” Brian Moskowitz, special agent in charge of HSI in Detroit, said in a statement.
But authorities are equipped “to follow a lengthy paper trail to expose schemes such as this and bring those involved to justice,” he said.
Nine of the 14 suspects were arrested in Detroit and four were arrested in San Diego, authorities said. One suspect, Danieal Korkis of Sterling Heights, Michigan, remains at large, authorities said.
Barbara McQuade, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, called the enterprise “a large-scale car-theft scheme.”
Five of the vehicles the gang allegedly reported stolen were intercepted on shipping containers in Montreal bound for Iraq, authorities said.
Export documents accompanying the five vehicles identified the exporter as Discount Auto Sales, a company owned by 57-year-old Adnan Hana of Sterling Heights, whom McQuade said was the ring’s leader.
