A Clean Carrier Name Is Now the Weapon
A federal jury in Los Angeles did not convict two men for cutting a lock. On September 29, 2026, it convicted them for using trucking companies that already looked legitimate.
Arshpreet Singh, 28, of Sacramento, and Vikramjeet Singh, 31, of Fontana, were found guilty of conspiring to steal freight from interstate shipments. Arshpreet Singh was also convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Prosecutors put the loss at no less than $2 million. Sentencing is set for January 20, 2027.
The method was the point. Between March 2024 and June 2025, conspirators purchased or fraudulently used real carriers, then bid on real contracts through brokers. Loads were picked up at warehouses and never delivered. In March 2024, Arshpreet Singh met the owner of Z&F Transportation LLC, a Texas carrier, and bought the company for about $22,000. Later that month a co-conspirator used that name to take televisions in Fontana that were supposed to go to Florida. In May 2024 the group bought Skyways Trucking LLC and used it on laptops, televisions, and solar panels. Other stolen freight included vacuums, LED lights, shoes, and tires. Thefts hit Fontana, Vernon, Long Beach, Compton, Chino, Moreno Valley, and other Southern California cities, plus Grand Prairie, Texas.
That $22,000 purchase bought something a brand-new authority cannot: history. A fresh MC number gets extra questions. An older company with a real address, insurance on file, and prior loads often does not. The dock sees a booked carrier. The broker sees a name that already cleared yesterday. The freight leaves anyway.
This is not a one-off. Deceptive pickup: fraud, identity theft, and carrier impersonation accounted for about 10% of U.S. cargo theft incidents in the first quarter of 2026 and rose 31% from a year earlier, according to Overhaul. Industry tallies still put 2025 U.S. and Canadian cargo-theft losses near $725 million, up about 60% from 2024, with the average stolen load around $274,000. The first half of 2026 was already above $359 million, and the average load value had climbed past $340,000. Fewer broken locks. More loads handed over.
Last month’s Illinois glycerin case is the same play on a smaller ticket. Cook County investigators said offenders cloned shipping documents and rerouted 75 drums of food-grade glycerin, about 41,000 pounds and $60,000, toward an unauthorized cross-dock in Thornton. Deputies recovered the shipment. No one had to break into the trailer. The paperwork had already changed the destination.
A one-time authority check at onboarding is not enough. Carriers get sold. Emails get copied. Plates and driver names change between the bid and the dock. Companies that only vet when a carrier is new will miss the company that was clean on Monday and under new control by Thursday.
The checks that matter are the ones repeated on the load, not just on the account. Confirm the carrier is still the one that was booked. Call a number you already have, not the one on the rate confirmation that just arrived. Match the driver, the tractor, and the trailer to that booking before the doors close. Treat a recently sold authority, a sudden lane change, or a pickup that does not match dispatch as a stop.
TruckWarden’s Cargo Theft Prevention Training Certificate trains brokers, shippers, and dock teams to catch a borrowed carrier name before custody changes hands. A clean MC is not proof. It is the first thing a crew will buy.
Stay sharp. Verify early. Train often.
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