THE finance ministry’s Financial Intelligence Division has cracked a thriving multi-million dollar car stealing ring operating between Jamaica and Miami in the United States, and said to involve big Kingston businessmen.

A senior director of the Financial Intelligence Division (FID) confirmed that the agency has seized 20 of the late model motor vehicles stolen in the United States, cut and exported to Jamaica where they were re-assembled in Kingston garages and sold way below the market prices, depriving the Government of millions of dollars in taxes.

The vehicles include a Chevrolet Escalade, Toyota Tundra, Toyota Tacoma, Mercedes Benz, Lexus, Ford F-150, BMW, Mitsubishi Pajero, Chevrolet Silverado and a Toyota Prado.

In addition, 37 expensive 600 cc motor cycles, that originally came to Jamaica in barrels as used parts, but which were re-assembled here, have been seized by the FDI.

“Right now we are focussing on those vehicles stolen and sent here since 2000, and we are having some success because we have already recovered 20 of the 150 stolen and imported here since 2000,” the FID’s director of intelligence, Robert Farr, told the Observer.

Deputy Superintendent Osmond Wright of the recently formed Organised Crime Unit (OCU), confirmed that his unit was collaborating with the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in probing the car racket, but declined to give details.

The National Insurance Crime Bureau, an agency representing insurance companies in the United States, was also helping in the investigations.

According to Farr, customs duty on the 20 vehicles seized would be between $20 million and $30 million.

One of the seized vehicles, a 1999 BMW convertible, was shipped to Jamaica as car parts and the person who cleared it paid duties of $33,400. However, Customs duties on that car would be approximately $2.2 million.

“They steal the cars mainly from Miami, cut them in parts, and pay as little as US$1,000 in duty to export them here as used parts. They are really clever because the arrival time between the theft in Miami or wherever and arrival in Jamaica is less than one week,” Farr explained.

“When the vehicles arrive here, agents in clandestine garages put them together and sell them for at least $1 million. These guys are smart because they sell the vehicles from their backyard. Sometimes they only have one vehicle at a time so you would think the sale is genuine,” Farr said.

The FDI and the police are investigating a connection between the importers of the stolen vehicles and persons in the revenue department who issue false documents to facilitate registration and licensing of the vehicles.

Customs import entries are required for the issue of certificates of fitness from the licensing authority and licences from the tax collectorates.

In the meantime, Farr said the FID now has a “computer link” between the Inland Revenue and the Customs departments, where documents submitted for imported car parts must be checked.

“Public notices have been issued (warning) that imported used motor vehicle parts can only be used to repair an existing vehicle but cannot be used to create a new vehicle,” Farr said.

“Most people who buy these motor vehicles are totally unaware of the illegal way the vehicles were imported here,” the FID director said. “The insurance companies abroad are interested in the vehicles when we recover them. After ownership is proven, it must be returned from where it was stolen. Therefore, we have appealed to the insurance companies here to tell the owners of these stolen cars to report to the FID, bearing in mind that duties are outstanding on these vehicles and the overseas owners still have an interest in them.

Farr also told the Observer that the FID last December repatriated three stolen vehicles to Canada. They were a 2003 Escalade, a 2002 Toyota Tacoma and a 2000 Toyota Prado.