Providence, RI — Mike Stenhouse, CEO of the Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity, makes the case in a Sept. 15 commentary for The Boston Globe that Congress should pass the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act (CORCA) to strengthen the fight against cargo theft.
Stenhouse describes criminal networks across New England exploiting railroads, trucking companies, warehouses, ports and online marketplaces. They steal identities, divert truckloads and resell goods across state lines, which makes them hard for any one jurisdiction to stop.
He points to two recent cases. A 2024 federal case involved about 60,000 stolen products worth $1.6 million, and authorities estimate the enterprise generated more than $12 million in sales. An April case involved more than $800,000 in stolen goods, including nearly 34,000 pounds of snow crab diverted from a Worcester warehouse by fraudulent communications that impersonated legitimate carriers.
The costs reach well beyond the thieves. Higher security and insurance costs push up prices for consumers, and small businesses are the least able to absorb the losses. Rhode Island has more than 1,600 manufacturers employing roughly 8.5 percent of the state’s workforce, and its ports connect maritime commerce to the inland freight network.
Stenhouse calls on Sen. Jack Reed to help attach CORCA to the final National Defense Authorization Act, noting that secure supply chains matter to the defense industrial base as well.
In his words, the bill “has no negative regulatory effect on businesses,” while giving federal authorities the ability to target organizations that exploit gaps between jurisdictions. Freight rail is one link in a supply chain that depends on security at every stage, and passing this bill would give law enforcement better tools to protect it.
