Trucking news and briefs for Thursday, April 17, 2025:
Anti-cargo theft legislation reintroduced in Congress
A bipartisan and bicameral effort to crack down on the unprecedented rise in cargo theft and organized retail theft has been reintroduced in Congress.
The "Combating Organized Retail Crime Act of 2025" would establish an Organized Retail and Supply Chain Crime Coordination Center within Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This Coordination Center would allow increased collaboration between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, along with retail crime associations and subject matter experts, to create a cohesive strategy to combat these crimes and share valuable resources, bill sponsors said.
In addition to establishing the Coordination Center, the bill would also amend Title 18 of the U.S. Code to allow criminal forfeiture for convictions related to interstate shipments, transportation of stolen goods, and sale or receipt of stolen goods. It would expand the money laundering statutes to include gift cards as "monetary instruments," and likewise enable prosecution of organized retail and supply chain crime groups using interstate or foreign commerce (that is, the internet) to facilitate crimes. The bill would further toughen penalties by permitting the aggregation of theft values totaling $5,000 or more over 12 months as a basis for charging under Title 18 sections related the transportation, sale or receipt of stolen goods, lending wide latitude for prosecutors.
Similar legislation was introduced in the two previous Congressional sessions.
The legislation was introduced in the U.S. House by Reps. David Joyce (R-Ohio), Susie Lee (D-Nevada), David Valadao (R-California), Dina Titus (D-Nevada), Michael Baumgartner (R-Washington), Brad Schneider (D-Illinois), Laurel Lee (R-Florida), and Lou Correa (D-California). Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada) introduced the Senate version of the bill.
The bill has received support from a number of supply chain- and retail-related organizations, including the American Trucking Associations, UPS, the Intermodal Association of North America and more.
[Related: Are you ready for the next era of cybersecurity and cargo crime prevention?]
Another former Mass. trooper pleads guilty in CDL bribery scheme
A second former Massachusetts State Police (MSP) trooper has pleaded guilty for his role in an alleged conspiracy to falsify records by giving passing scores to certain commercial driver’s license (CDL) applicants, including individuals who had failed or did not take the CDL skills test as required by federal law.
On April 1, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts announced that former Massachusetts trooper Calvin Butner had agreed to plead guilty in the same scheme.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced that Perry Mendes, 64, of Wareham, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to falsify records, three counts of falsifying records and two counts of making false statements. In January 2024, Mendes was charged in January 2024 in a 74-count indictment along with five others in the alleged conspiracy and related schemes.
According to the charging document, between about May 2019 and January 2023, Mendes and others conspired to give automatic passing scores to at least 17 CDL applicants on their skills tests regardless of whether they actually passed, using the code word “golden handshake” or “golden,” for short, to identify applicants who would receive special treatment.
At a plea hearing last week, Mendes admitted to his role in the alleged conspiracy, including that he cut skills tests short for “golden” applicants; that he entered false information on CDL score sheets indicating that certain applicants had passed the skills test when they had not; and that he reported passing scores for applicants he knew had never taken the skills test.
On April 7, Butner pleaded guilty for his role in the charged offenses, and on March 21, civilian co-defendant Eric Mathison pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit extortion.
The conspiracy charge carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a maximum fine of $250,000. Records falsification charges each come with a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a maximum fine of $250,000. False statements charges could each carry five-year prison sentences, up to three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.
[Related: Former Massachusetts trooper to plead guilty for alleged CDL testing scheme]
