Eight people were indicted this week in New York on charges of operating what prosecutors described as a “wide-ranging retail theft ring” that stole nearly $5 million worth of goods from logistics sites across the Northeast over a seven-month period.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office announced charges Wednesday against the eight individuals, accusing them of “conspiring to impersonate shipping carriers in a wide-ranging retail theft ring throughout the north-east.” The scheme used hacked shipment data to steal goods from logistics centers in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and New Jersey and sell them on New York City’s black market, prosecutors said.
The indictment alleges the operation ran from October 2025 through April 2026 and involved six separate thefts. The stolen goods included $165,000 worth of lamb, $432,000 worth of cheese, $295,000 worth of beef, more than $266,000 worth of copper wiring, and more than $3.3 million worth of cigarettes, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said in a news release that the group obtained winning bids on shipping jobs from hacker groups with whom they coordinated. The defendants then leased tractor trucks, affixed them with the name and registration number of the legitimate shipping carrier that was supposed to make the pickup, and collected the goods from logistics centers, prosecutors alleged. The stolen cargo was then coordinated for shipment into and through Manhattan for resale.
Each defendant is charged with one count of conspiracy in the fourth degree and varying counts of grand larceny in the second degree.
“We believe that many small businesses were harmed by this theft, some of which may not be able to recover from their financial losses,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Wednesday. “Furthermore, the intersection of sophisticated online hacking and large-scale theft is deeply concerning and will only grow more prevalent, and we are using every tool available to stay ahead of this emerging trend.”
Jessica Tisch, the New York City police commissioner, described the operation as “highly coordinated” and said it “exploited small businesses, disrupted supply chains, and pushed stolen goods” onto the black market.
The theft ring is the latest in a series of freight-theft and organized retail crime cases prosecuted in the region. In March, prosecutors in Italy charged suspects in the theft of 12 tons of KitKat bars from a truck en route from Switzerland to Poland.