Luxury Сars Stolen in Sweden Possibly Part of Africa Drug Deals

Thieves reportedly use technologically advanced relay equipment to intercept the signal from the car's key in order to steal them in minutes. The cars are later sold on foreign markets to unknowing buyers.

Stockholm border police have opened an investigation into a wave of premium car thefts this Autumn.

Nineteen such cars have been found and seized in the Swedish capital alone over the past few months, nine of which were stopped by police when they were about to be loaded onto a shipment en route to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands for onward shipment to West Africa. Other cars have been found in containers across Sweden bound for Eastern Europe and the Baltics.

“One of our hypotheses is that the vehicles that are ferried to West Africa are payment for drugs that are shipped into the country," Daniel Almskog of the border police's workgroup against international criminal networks said in a statement.

The thieves reportedly use technologically advanced tools, including so-called relay equipment, in which a receiver is used to intercept the signal from the car's key and open it and start the engine. This allows stealing a car literally in minutes, as in action-packed movie thrillers.

Another approach is for the thieves to get into the car's electrical system through external influences and thus gain access to the car's functions.

After the car is stolen, it is re-identified by being given a new chassis number and fake vehicle documents. Subsequently, the cars are sold on markets in other countries to unknowing buyers.

Sweden's border police are reportedly working in close cooperation with other countries across Europe affected by the same problem. Europol and Interpol are also following developments and contributing with their expertise.

Four men are currently standing trial accused of gross car theft. In mid-November, two more were arrested.

The Swedish Alarm Service, which keeps track of stolen cars in the country, previously said that there was no doubt that international gangs were operating in Sweden focused on stealing and smuggling cars.

Stealing cars in one country to then sell elsewhere with a new identity is not unusual, especially when it comes to luxury brands.

One of the most notorious examples concerned football player David Beckham's BMW X5, which was stolen from a parking lot in Madrid in 2006. A couple of years later, the car appeared in North Macedonia's capital, Skopje, with Interior Minister Gordana Jakulova behind the wheel, indicating that not even celebrities and politicians are immune. The car had been given a new identity and imported via Greece.