Over a dozen people indicted, accused of stealing trucks and trading them to Mexican drug cartels

DENVER, CO - On Monday, December 9th, the Denver District Attorney's Office announced that 17 alleged members of the "major stolen car ring" were indicted. These individuals have been accused of stealing at least 190 vehicles between September 2022 and February 2024 and allegedly selling them to Mexican drug cartel members.

According to KDVR, the indictment has 222 counts in it including over 100 counts of auto theft and more than a dozen counts of drug possession as well as other crimes. Most of the 190 vehicles were high-end pickup trucks, with a total loss of over $9.5 million, and were stolen between May and October of 2023.

The indictment states that the vehicles stolen included over 45 Ford Raptors and 10 Dodge Ram 1500 TRX trucks. Authorities said that 11 of the 17 are currently in custody. The remaining six were believed to be in Colorado, Texas, or Mexico.

Denver District Attorney Beth McCann said that the vehicles were taken to Mexico where they were traded to drug cartels for cocaine and methamphetamine. The drugs were then imported back into the United States and brought to Denver. David Olesky with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said that the group was linked to the Sinaloa cartel.

A prosecutors with the district attorney's office said that the city of Denver is "uniquely geographically situated," making it easier for vehicles to get our of the city and county of Denver. She said Denver has a major international airport, but is also surrounded by a lot of states that do not have the same access to international flights. The indictment states that many of the vehicles were stolen from Denver International Airport parking lots. 

According to Denver7, Alison Foley, a prosecutor with Denver's DA office said, "You have a lot of people driving in, especially from the mountains, generally in four wheel drive vehicles or larger pickup trucks, who are coming to Denver for the purposes of being able to take a long flight or to go travel somewhere for a significant amount of time."

She added, "We are also on I-25 and on I-70, which makes moving vehicles out of the city and county of Denver relatively easy. Some of these individuals have explained to us that they were able to get in a car in the city and county of Denver. They drove straight south until they dropped the car off in El Paso, and that ended their role in this part of the organization."

Denver7 said that Denver International Airport said that between January 2023 and November 2023, there were a reported 716 vehicles stolen from the airport. Between January 2024 and November 2024, 273 vehicles were reported stolen from the airport.

Denver International Airport said in a statement, "DEN, just like other airports, is a target rich environment due to the number of vehicles in our parking facilities. 99.9 percent of drivers who park at DEN do not experience these issues. However, one auto theft is one too many. Through a focused and coordinated effort with our law enforcement partners and contractors to improve and increase security measures, surveillance, and enforcement, auto thefts at DEN continue to significantly decline."