CBC News hunts down Canada's stolen vehicles in West Africa

Nearly all cars stolen in Canada are exported overseas by organized crime. In West Africa, where many vehicles end up, authorities are pleading with Canada to stop the flow of stolen cars.

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[RubyVideoFan]

The authorities can stop millions of people from flying but cannot stop thousands of vehicles from leaving Canada.

[Constitutionalist]

They should be investigating the port authorities who allow stolen vehicles worth millions on to ships leaving Montreal .

[nolanbooker]

The people in uniform at the ports are involved in this.

[SherpsShah]

Montreal shipping is where the problem is mostly those corrupted custom officers

[mymailsb]

Going to Ghana and investigating stolen vehicles is easier than getting into Montreal Port 😂

[MegaGosia]

The question is, why do Canadian authorities allow these vehicles to live from Canada in the first place? Where are the officials responsible for controlling what goes out? For this amount of vehicle to be sent through the ports, they must have their hands in it! Corruption starts from the top.

[williamlynn]

This reveals how Incompetence Canadian Customs IS! There are a lot of technologies today that can check the content of a container without open it.

[nuxkamina]

I like how our Canadian reporters have literally tracked stolen vehicles down and are looking at them in Ghana, Africa. Maybe we should start looking at what gets shipped in and out of the country.

[Gmommy]

Ghana isnt playing. They caught em and seized them. So many think the govt is crooked for a fee but they seem to track down these criminals. Good for Ghana.

[Rakki_Haitatsu]

David Common is one of CBC's best hard working reporters. It's always pleasure watching his informative news casts and you can tell he gives 110% everytime

[Oops-Ops]

The solution to the problem of car theft could be achieved by implementing a complete ban on the export of used cars. It's perplexing to me how stolen vehicles manage to be exported. Exporting typically involves a shipping agent, and it's the agent's responsibility to verify and confirm the proper documentation of the vehicle. Only if everything is in order, the agent arranges the shipment. There likely exists a network, possibly involving organized crime, engaged in this illicit business.

[thedeadbatterydepot]

Canada doesn't control our own ports or shipping containers transfer areas. That's horrible!

[luannjeanette]

This is how they traffic human beings as well 🥺

[Rohit_M]

The car theft stats are alarming. A friend had two high-end SVUs stolen within a span of a few months, one from the driveway the other from shopping center parking lot. This sounds like a sophisticated theft ring which may have a ton of people on the inside involved. Large vehicles can't simply get onto container ships to be shipped halfway across the world without any checks at various ports.

[brianpagenkopf]

How hard would it be to inspect containers leaving Canada? Why hasn't Trudeau already put a stop to this insanity?

[Albert-zhps]

Wonder if the government (taxpayers) spent $1.3 billion dollars on dealing with the problem instead of paying $1.3 billion for someone to tell us about it would help?

[prxject]

Imagine if they assembled vehicles with a region lock system, and the only way to bypass it would be by asking the manufacturer/company to assist. 😭

[Arjun-kboz]

Now I realize why I pay C$370 per month for my car insurance in Toronto

[Qndrew]

Cars aren’t easy to move. One of the large sea transportation companies are definitely in on this.

[spawn]

We can't take a small cigarette lighter in pocket. How come these truck size of home left country? Shame on our corrupt system politicians and police