Mexican cartels divert thousands of U.S. rental cars and trucks to fuel their operations

Operatives from Mexican cartels are increasingly acquiring U.S. rental vehicles by theft or by renting them and then crossing the border, with California identified as the primary source of roughly 2,000 cars each year. The carts favor high-end SUVs such as Cadillac Escalades and BMW models, as well as heavy-duty pickups like Chevy Suburbans and Ford Raptors, which are sometimes upgraded with ballistic steel plating, firing ports and gun mounts.

California’s restrictive privacy laws prevent rental companies from activating GPS tracking until after the rental period, allowing many stolen cars to disappear deep into Mexican territory. Rental agencies and the American Car Rental Association note a sharp rise in such losses, estimating millions of dollars in annual costs. Recovery efforts are hampered by lengthy reporting procedures and limited coordination among U.S. states, while Mexican authorities often re-plate the vehicles, rendering them invisible to U.S. stolen-vehicle databases.