Operation Mobile 6 puts the brakes on car thieves – Malware News – Malware Analysis, News and In…>
EuroPol –
Operation Mobile 6 was a large-scale law enforcement effort targeting vehicle theft across the EU and several non-EU countries, including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia.
Conducted in October 2023, it involved about 400 officers from 25 countries, supported by Europol and INTERPOL, as well as Frontex, which led the operation.
The authorities carried out detailed inspections at various border points, resulting in the recovery of 505 stolen cars, roughly 2,000 stolen vehicle parts, 16 boats, 32 outboard engines, and 248 forged documents.
Additionally, the operation led to the identification of 209 migrant smugglers.
The operation highlighted several criminal strategies, particularly the use of ‘cloned cars’— vehicles carrying the identity papers of similar, typically destroyed vehicles to bypass border controls and checks for stolen cars.
The complexity of combating these tactics is increasing due to the sophistication of forged vehicle identification numbers.
Europol provided expertise and database crosschecks during the operation, playing a key role, as illustrated by their support in linking a stolen vehicle crossing from Greece to Türkiye with a request from Austrian authorities.
Operation Mobile 6 was part of the EMPACT framework, aiming to improve the response to organized and serious international crime threatening the EU by enhancing strategic and operational cooperation between national and international bodies.
It focused on EMPACT’s priority area of organized property crime.
Link: https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/operation-mobile-6-puts-brakes-car-thieves