Cargo theft has quietly become one of the most disruptive—and costly—threats facing the U.S. supply chain.
After years of escalating losses and increasingly sophisticated criminal tactics, the freight and logistics industry received a rare piece of good news last month: the House Judiciary Committee approved H.R. 2853, the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act of 2025 (CORCA), advancing the bill toward consideration by the full House.
The legislation, introduced in April by Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio), carries bipartisan backing and targets the organized criminal networks behind large-scale retail and cargo theft. These operations are no longer isolated smash-and-grab incidents—they are coordinated, multi-jurisdictional enterprises that exploit both physical and online marketplaces to resell stolen goods.
At its core, CORCA aims to modernize federal enforcement tools to reflect how organized theft actually operates today. According to the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), the bill would expand federal authority under Title 18 of the U.S. Code, allowing prosecutors to aggregate theft cases that are currently treated as smaller, disconnected crimes.
It also calls for the creation of a Department of Homeland Security-led Crime Coordination Center to improve intelligence sharing and joint enforcement across retail and multimodal supply chains.
The legislation goes further by increasing penalties for organized cargo theft—particularly cases involving interstate or international movement of stolen goods—and strengthening public-private collaboration among federal agencies, law enforcement, retailers, and transportation providers. For an industry that has long argued that fragmented enforcement has allowed organized theft rings to flourish, these provisions represent a meaningful shift.
The urgency behind CORCA is clear. TIA estimates cargo theft costs the U.S. economy up to $35 billion annually, with so-called “strategic theft” incidents up more than 1,500% since the first quarter of 2021. One recent example cited by TIA involved a shipment of lobsters worth more than $400,000 enroute to Costco locations—a reminder that high-value, high-demand goods remain prime targets.
TIA president and CEO Chris Burroughs has consistently emphasized that putting real-world examples in front of lawmakers makes the issue impossible to ignore. When members of Congress can tie freight fraud, double brokering, or unlawful brokerage activities to businesses and shippers in their own districts, the scale of the problem becomes tangible. Just as concerning, Burroughs notes, is that the reported numbers likely understate reality, as many thefts go unreported.
The American Trucking Associations (ATA) echoed that concern, noting that cargo theft now costs the trucking industry more than $18 million per day, according to data from the American Transportation Research Institute, an ATA subsidiary. ATA president and CEO Chris Spear described CORCA’s advancement as a “pivotal moment,” pointing out that trucking—responsible for moving nearly three-quarters of the nation’s freight—has become a prime target for organized and even transnational crime rings.
Railroads are seeing the same pressures. Association of American Railroads president and CEO Ian Jefferies called CORCA a critical step toward countering theft networks that disrupt supply chains, endanger workers, and drive-up consumer costs.
Retailers, too, are firmly behind the bill. And the National Retail Federation has reported that half of retailers surveyed saw increases in cargo or supply chain theft over the past year, alongside spikes in phone scams, ecommerce fraud, and organized shoplifting.
CORCA’s passage through committee does not solve the problem overnight, but it signals growing recognition in Washington that cargo theft is not merely a cost of doing business—it is a national economic and public safety issue.
As the bill moves to the House floor and, potentially, the Senate, the question is whether Congress can match industry urgency with swift action. For a supply chain under constant pressure, delay is a luxury it can no longer afford.
