Found this excellent description of what goes on in a theft ring. It just shows how the detailing shop, body shops, dealerships etc, were all part of the ring:
The men washed car titles clean by using Web sites to get vehicle identification numbers, or VINs, from similar makes and models that had been salvaged, then put new VIN plates on the stolen cars' dashboards and created matching titles, prosecutors said.
They then re-registered the cars in North Carolina, South
Carolina and Georgia, where bar codes on New York titles can't be read, authorities said.
The cars were sold to unwitting buyers, including military personnel, in New York City and North Carolina.
Paniagua owns Rapan Auto in Queens, where stolen cars were stored, prosecutors said.
Song is a salesman at Major Auto World, a Queens dealership from where four of the cars were reported stolen.
Payamps is a salesman at BMW of Bayside, a Queens dealership from where two of the cars were reported stolen.
Rodriguez and Garcia are known as paper guys, because they altered VINs and forged car titles and VINs, prosecutors said.
Urena acted as a broker in the sale of one of the stolen cars, prosecutors said.
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/Queens.auto.theft.2.236559.html
I think in this case we'll see that they were running drugs as they ran cars.
Someone (I
wish I could take the credit) referred to the perps as "The Crack A-team" Sounds about right. Looking through the Myspace for 5th Dimension, I'm thinking all those gangsters gotta be getting the money to soup up those cars somewhere.
