Through the pilot project Project NoCargo, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has intercepted and recovered 392 illegally obtained vehicles set for export over the past year.
The RCMP teamed up with INTERPOL Ottawa, the Canada Border Services Agency, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, and Canadian financial institutions to secure vehicles in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. The vehicles were valued at $28 million on estimate.
Project NoCargo was developed to investigate suspicious vehicle exports through Canadian marine ports. The project was rolled out through the RCMP’s Federal Policing Criminal Operations – Financial Crime program in June 2025 with INTERPOL Ottawa’s help.
Last year, INTERPOL Ottawa had identified a trend of fraudulently obtained vehicles being exported overseas by transnational organized crime networks. Criminals secure the vehicles by stealing or inventing personal credentials for auto loan applications; they then use the credentials to set up insurance policies for the vehicles. Such vehicle finance fraud is estimated to have led to $900 million in insurance losses for 2025.
Under Project NoCargo, the CBSA flags potential financial fraud cases to the RCMP, which then investigates them. If criminal activity is confirmed to have taken place, the CBSA intercepts the vehicles in question prior to export.
In 2025, the CBSA secured 1,590 stolen vehicles in railyards and ports. It has also launched a 24/7 central point of contact for police to coordinate vehicle location requests that may lead to a marine port or intermodal facility.
In the past two years, FINTRAC has provided 90 auto theft-related disclosures to Canadian law enforcement agencies, including 76,097 transactions with 408 subjects of interest.
“As criminal networks evolve to evade detection, we will remain vigilant to stay ahead. Initiatives like Project NoCargo are delivering results and demonstrate the strength of coordinated intelligence and enforcement operations, and we will continue strengthening our collective response to protect Canada’s borders and communities,” said Erin O’Gorman, CBSA’s president, in a statement.
Canada’s National Action Plan on Combatting Auto Theft was developed in February 2024 with input from orders of government, law enforcement, and industry. The federal government has allocated $15 million towards law enforcement efforts centered on stopping auto theft and support for a coordinated domestic and international response to the offence.
The Canadian Police Information Centre also incorporated its data on Canadian stolen motor vehicles into the INTERPOL SMV database that year.