Vehicle crime is a highly organized criminal activity affecting the whole world. It has been clearly established that it is often linked to organized crime and terrorism. The vehicles are not only stolen for their own sake; sometimes they are trafficked to finance other crimes. They can also be used as bomb carriers or in the perpetration of other crimes.

These web pages attempt to offer useful information and links to fight vehicle crime. Interpol is working to keep this site up to date and to provide the most useful information.

The Interpol General Secretariat has developed the Automated Search Facility-Stolen Motor Vehicle (ASF-SMV) database to support police in member countries in the fight against international vehicle theft and trafficking.

At the end of December 2009, the database held more than 6.2 million records of reported stolen motor vehicles. Close to 157 countries (2 more than in 2008) use the database regularly, of which 126 countries (4 more than in 2008) share their national stolen vehicle database records with INTERPOL. In 2009 more than 26,000 motor vehicles were discovered worldwide through the ASF-SMV database, 5,000 hits fewer than in 2008.

SMV records

Searches

Hits

Countries

Countries uploading their national databases into ASF SMV

Countries which have searched in ASF SMV

Countries which have registered hits in the ASF SMV

We are seeing evidence of increasing trends in the theft of heavy vehicles and trailers. Evaluations are under way to try to gain a clear picture of the situation and to decide on an appropriate course of action.

At the international level, the General Secretariat has set up and chairs a number of working groups which meet on a regular basis, and has developed numerous projects to address the issue, including Project FORMATRAIN and Project Mar Adriatico.

• Project FORMATRAIN – an acronym from FORMAtion and TRAINing – assists investigators with information on vehicle and document identification, investigative strategies, techniques and tools, databases, legal preconditions, etc. The aim of the project is to create a standardized training programme to facilitate investigations into international cases of vehicle theft through basic, intermediate and advanced courses; to train the trainers; and to take advantage of INTERPOL's global network to share expertise. Representatives from Australia, Belgium, Finland, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States and Zimbabwe have attended working group meetings.
  

The following training courses have been held together with our international partners:

• for European Experts in Vantaa, Finland (2003)
• for West African countries in Abuja, Nigeria, for Nigeria, Togo, Ghana and Liberia and in Cotonou, Benin, for Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Gabon (November 2007)
• for Cyprus, Italy, Greece and UK in Nicosia, Cyprus (April 2008)
• for Syria, Oman, Jordan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait in Damascus, Syria (May 2008)
• for Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Gambia in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire (December 2008)
• for Lebanon, Syria and Jordan in Beirut, Lebanon (May 2009)
• for Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Sudan in Kampala, Uganda (June 2009)
• for Balkan countries in September 2009 in Belgrade, Serbia
• for Cyprus, Italy and Greece in November 2009 in Nicosia, Cyprus
• for Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso in November 2009 in Bamako, Mali
• more training sessions are planned in 2010 and are currently being prepared by the Working Group.

The Working Group resumed its activities in 2006, with members from Finland, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Austria, South Africa, the United States, China (Hong Kong) and the INTERPOL General Secretariat. The next Working Group meeting has not yet been scheduled.

• Project Mar Adriatico – was initiated by the Italian National Central Bureau (NCB). The General Secretariat has assumed international co-ordination of this project. For the first time, vehicle-crime experts from Portugal, Greece and Turkey joined the Working Group at its latest meeting, and took part in discussions with experts from Spain, Italy, Germany and Bulgaria.

Furthermore, vehicle-crime experts from INTERPOL regularly attend meetings of the Baltic Sea Task Force Expert Group, which focuses on co-operation and joint operations in the region.

• Project INVEX was initiated by the German National Central Bureau (NCB).
  The aim is to open up more possibilities for detecting stolen motor vehicles and to increase the quality of the data in the ASF SMV database in co-operation with a number of car manufacturers. A project involving five countries and the German car manufacturers Volkswagen (which also makes Skoda and Seat), Audi (including Lamborghini) and Porsche, will attempt to achieve this objective by regularly exchanging data. The pilot project started in January 2009 and was adopted by the General Assembly later that year in Singapore.

The German manufacturers BMW (which includes Mini and Rolls Royce) and Mercedes-Benz (including Smart and Maybach) will join in the project later. The French and Italian NCBs have also made initial contacts with, respectively, Renault and PSA (Peugeot & Citroen), and with the Fiat group.

 

• Operation ZFF was initiated by the Italian National Central Bureau (NCB).
  The countries which took part were Italy, Switzerland, France, Greece, the United Arab Emirates and Japan. It was the first time the General Secretariat had proposed ad hoc analysis and support during an ongoing investigation, and offered to co-ordinate such an international investigation. The operation was concluded in 2008.

• Operational support in field operations.
  The General Secretariat regularly supports SMV operations in the field, if requested by the organizing countries. Since 2006, more than 20 operations have been given support in the form of technical, organizational and human resources in Europe, Africa and the Americas.

Experiences have been positive and we are considering the idea of creating an international joint operational task force with the support of member countries.

• Operational INTERPOL SMV Task Force. This is based on an INTERPOL initiative and was created in September 2008 as an international task force comprising police officers and private investigators, all experts in the field of vehicle crime and from different INTERPOL member countries.

The Task Force members currently include experts from Germany, Finland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Italy, Sweden, Spain and EUROPOL.

The aims behind this initiative are to:

• take advantage of the expertise and know-how of the different national experts coming together for a given operation
• share information among the different experts
• access in the fastest way possible the different national databases and information sources to achieve positive results
• analyse the outcomes of the operation
• start investigations based on the outcomes of the operation and the analysis.
• Three operations – one in the Balkan region, one in Italy and one in Spain - were supported by the Task Force in 2009.