Cars stolen in the US used in car bombings in Iraq. From the Boston Globe, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:
WASHINGTON -- The FBI's counterterrorism unit has launched a broad investigation of US-based theft rings after discovering that some of the vehicles used in deadly car bombings in Iraq, including attacks that killed US troops and Iraqi civilians, were probably stolen in the United States, according to senior government officials.Inspector John E. Lewis, deputy assistant director of the FBI for counterterrorism, told the Globe that the investigation hasn't yielded any evidence that the vehicles were stolen specifically for car bombings. But there is evidence, he said, that the cars were smuggled from the United States as part of a widespread criminal network that includes terrorists and insurgents.
Cracking the car theft rings and tracing the cars could help identify the leaders of insurgent forces in Iraq and shut down at least one of the means they use to attack the US-led coalition and the Iraqi government, the officials said.
The inquiry began after coalition troops raided a bomb-making factory in Fallujah last November and found a sport utility vehicle registered in Texas that was being prepared for a bombing mission....
''It is getting a tremendous amount of attention in the US government," said Steven Emerson, who runs the Investigative Project on Terrorism, a Washington research firm that consults for law enforcement and intelligence agencies. ''We have gotten more calls on this than anything else in the last three or four weeks. [Auto theft] is an unregulated market. Some of the proceeds are going to terrorists."
I have long advocated that insurance adjusters, appraisers and investigators be contacted and used on the domestic front of the war on terror. Fradulent proceeds from insurance claims are soft money for the financing of terrorist activities and overlooked by authorities. Unfortunately, I've been a "voice crying in the wilderness". Perhaps, with this report, that voice will be heard.
Five foreign men were today facing expulsion from Britain after being detained in the latest operation aimed at people deemed to be a threat to national security.
The men were held in dawn raids led by the Immigration Service and backed by police this morning in London, the West Midlands and south Wales.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1583764,00.html
Probably Buddhists.
It seems that Austria has backed down and Turkey can begin talks for entry to the EU.
I know it's a serious topic but just the same, the following quote from Stephen Emerson brought a smile to my face. Talk about stating the obvious:
"[Auto theft] is an unregulated market."
Why would they want to steal cars 10,000 from where they want to use them, and with at least one ocean in between?
Which port are they using in the Middle East to unload the ships?
This is a rebuttal for Gary from his little spiel from Sept 26th, the "Hollywood Elite" article. I wouldn't want to deprive Gary of another opportunity to call me liar; maybe this time he will SHOW that I am a liar, but I somehow doubt it.
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Damn.... Gary "forgot" to answer my questions yet again. I'll try posting them one more time. (Gary, if you still can't answer, feel free to call me a liar again.)
Did the Hollywood elite send the Palestinians 50 Million dollars?
Did the Hollywood elite send the Taliban 43 Million dollars in April 2001?
Did the Hollywood elite say that they would catch Bin Laden "dead or alive" no less--and then promplty invade Iraq?
Are the Hollywood elite braying on and on ad infinitum about "Freedom's On The March" and the "democracy in Iraq" that is really--as has been pointed out here many times by JW staff--going to be just another lousy Sharia hellhole, a clone of Iran?
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Clinton's comments were made on January 10, 2000... a full 20 months before the Saudis destroyed the WTC (it even describes the date in the link...duh) But nice try though.
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Get back with me on the presidential libraries when we find out how much Saudi gives to Dubya... btw, since you are so good with your search engine, can you… aw never mind. You won’t “have time” so let me just do it for you: here’s a site that breaks down the 1.4 BILLION dollars funneled from Saudi Arabia to the Bush family:
http://www.newsaic.com/f911chap3-2a.html
...The figure also contains $1.5 million in donations to charities affiliated with George H.W. Bush (including his high school, Phillips Academy, which I also attended), $1 million to George H.W. Bush's presidential library, and a $1 million gift to George W. Bush's eventual presidential library...
“Eventual” presidential library? (This is almost as ludicrous as Bush Sr. pardoning the Iran-Contra conspirators to keep them from testifying against him before they even stood trial...for crimes "They may have committed" but hey, let's talk about Marc Rich instead....)In other words, Saudi has already given a million dollars for a library that hasn’t even been built! Perfect republican crap, Gary. It seems to me that the Saudis give a million dollars to every presidential library, but true to rep-con form, you pretend that they only did it for Clinton.
It’s right out of the Limbaugh Institute playbook: take a flaw in someone you support, ignore it, and point out similar flaws in his opponent. It almost becomes a case of “everybody’s doing it”… except—and this is a key point here—Clinton is NO LONGER IN POWER… Clinton’s not the one poo-pooing the Saudi slave trade. Clinton hosted Ramadan “Feasts” too, but he didn’t do so while the towers were still on fire after 9-11.
And Clinton doesn’t work for a company (The Caryle Group) that is basically owned by Saudi Arabians (unlike Bush Sr. and James Baker.)
This is EXACTLY like the right-wing outrage over “Blackhawk Down”… they got all worked up because Clinton inherited a quagmire from Bush Sr… and where are all those “pro-troop” patriots now, that thousands GIs have been killed, maimed, etc? Towing the party line, of course. All so that Sharia can take over Iraq.
Or Gary, do you say that democracy in Iraq will be a good thing? I don’t think that you should call Mr. Spencer and Mr. Fitzgerald liars like that. I think that THEY are probably right and YOU are wrong.
Read the whole page, there are some good criticism of Clinton there…. I never said Slick Willie was an angel; the fact is that Bush is the one that has the influence NOW, and Bush is the one in bed with the Saudis NOW. And the “war on terror” is going on NOW. And thousands of other-than-mexicans are sneaking into America NOW.
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Clinton “funded the teaching of Islam in our schools”…. So when is Bush going to UN-fund it? I’ll hold my breath.
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Clinton “sold our children to Islam”… and he cites townhall.com, blessedcause.org, and the Drudge Report no less. Maybe I should cite some articles from mikemoore.com; I’m sure that would really make a difference.
Now Bush sends the Army and Marine Corps to Iraq to overthrow the haram government make a Shi'ite-dominated, Iran-influenced, Sharia-based, Islamicly-pure, Koran-approved, theocratic hellhole. Yet it was Clinton who "Sold our Children to Islam"???? Another classic example of "accuse the other guy of what OUR guy's doing." Remember, people.... THOUSANDS of American GI's have had been killed and thousands more have had traumatic amputations, eyes blown out, faces burnt off, etc. Many thousands more have seen their best friends blown away right in front of them and will suffer from PTSD for the rest of their lives. Every one of them has a family that's been ruined.
And for what? To impose Sharia law in Iraq.
But Clinton's the one that "sold our children to Islam." Just keep repeating that, and eventually you'll believe it. Right, Gary?
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Oh no Gary, you don’t hate liberals. You just looooove the people you claim hate America, hate the troops, love Islam, hate capitalism, etc. You don't hate Mike Moore, now do you? And Barbara Striesand, and Cindy Miller, right? Oh don’t tell me: you hate the sin but love the sinner, right? LOL.
That should be 10,000 miles.
Judging from this car theft ring affair in Iraq, it looks as though Islamic terrorists are taking literally (and to heart) that old bromide: "drive a bargain into Hell."
Which no doubt they certainly WILL be doing...
That sucks, but, how are they getting the cars over there? I mean, seriously; let's say, they're being stolen in Los Angeles (one of the car theft capitals of the galaxy) and they're getting onto ships in Long Beach or San Pedro. OK, they have to get through the Panama Canal, pass the US Navy in the Persian Gulf in order to land in Iraq.
Then, you have the ostensibly tight security at the unloading centers. Don't the shippers have to produce documentation that they own these cars? I suppose you could forge that documentation but that takes time and money and I would imagine that with long shipping times, time is of the essence.
I'm not saying it's impossible. I'll bet they're doing it. But it seems like a logistical nightmare and it seems to me that even a little bit of work by the CIA could bust it up pretty easily.
kj:
WTF?
Dairenn,
Our educated guess to your question is that the jihadists are smuggling stolen automobiles out of the USA by:
1-)disassembling the autos after they are stolen at undisclosed locations (such as old US factories or warehouses) and shipped out of the US in crates holding the various auto parts to undislosed overseas locations where they are reassembled.
Many crates that leave and enter the US are NOT x-rayed or inspected. There are far too many for that to be done regularly. Airline carriers don't even do this. Hint: dissassembled car parts could be shipped out of the US on planes bypassing shipping ports.
A shipping port in, say, Vera Cruz Mexico could easily ship a crate full of illicit car parts or even reassembled stolen cars themselves to Middle East locations like Syria or Iraq without passing through the Panama Canal, no?
2-)they could possibly be smuggled into Mexico WITH the knowledge and (well-paid for) approval of the Mexican "police" (or whatever they are...which in reality bears little resemblance to anything like law-enforcers). From Mexico, they could be fairly easily shipped overseas without the knowledge or concern of the Mexican government. OR-
3-) Some of the vehicles may also be posing as legitimate rental cars entering Mexico with the thieves possessing counterfeited documents to indicate that the vehicles are rentals. Once in Mexico there could exist a service, national or foreign, that ships the stolen vehicles to the Middle East or some transit link between Mexico and the Middle East.
I suspect you have not taken into account that there are known links between jihadist organizations such as al-Qaeda and syndicated crime such as the Sicilian or Mexican Mafias. Such links are probably what enabled this operation to succeed as it has.
I am sure US organized crime busters WIll put an end to it and have a field day doing so.
Dairenn:
From what I have read about the stolen car business, it is well organized. The stolen cars are often loaded into containers within hours and from then on I would expect shipment out of the country would be easy. Only a very small percentage of containers are inspected and I would expect the authorities are concerned most about incoming traffic - not outgoing containers. I would expect they find their way to Iraq via Syria (or Lebanon then Syria).
Kemaste:
Don't even go there. (kj has way too much time on his hands)
KJ,FYI, the Saudi's donated $20 mil to Clinton's library, which is way more than the $1 mil towards Bush Sr. and the $1 mil painting donated to W's libraries. Also you obviously didn't know that Carlyle is mostly run by Democrats, not Republicans. And....furthermore, WTF does this have to do with terrorists stealing American cars to be used in car bombings?
Drug sales for jihad, car theft for jihad, let's keep our borders wide open!
Car theft has been a huge problem in Texas for a long time. There are three major categories of theft. First, there is the chop shop. Cars are stolen for the value of specific parts that are expensive or in short supply. The cars are disassembled and "parted out."
Secondly, cars are stolen "to order" for a particular customer (I want a 2003 Toyota Camry) at a particular price.
Third, is the export to Mexico for cash or drugs. The cars targeted vary somewhat by whatever fills the gap in Mexican production, and, basically, whatever is popular. A few years ago, it was Jeeps and similar SUV's. Now the things are everywhere.
Police departments inspect the used parts yards routinely (at least in the major cities), and check both the auto bodies on the yard, and the paperwork showing purchases. Serial numbers without paperwork (title transfers signed by the previous owners, or transfers of wrecks from insurance companies, etc.) are presumed to show a stolen car or car part. The police don't play around, and yards (and their employees) can get in big trouble fast. (As one fellow lawyer told me, "I can mess around with that DNA stuff and might get a client off, but when the cops find a damn serial number my guy's going to prison.)
The used parts business is HUGE. Hundreds of millions of dollars.
"To order" cars are complicated, because the idea is to generate a good title document and registration so nobody can tell the car is a stolen vehicle, and it can be insured. The process is very involved, and almost always uses a "cut-out" to switch the title with a vehicle that has been wrecked, brought in from another state that does not have similar title laws, or been seized for "unpaid repairs" or etc.
About ten or fifteen years ago (time flies), the theft situation was so bad, and insurance premiums in Texas were rising so fast because of theft, that the insurance companies banded together to watch the roads leading to the Mexican border. The plan was to consolidate reports of stolen cars from various police departments and convey them to watchers on the half-dozen or more roads leading to the Mexican border. The theory was that a car stolen near Houston, for example, even if driven straight to Mexico (which they often were), would be on the road for six or seven hours. A theft in Dallas would add at least four hours more. During that time, the theft info could be forwarded to the watchers, who would be on the lookout for the make, model, and color of the vehicle, and check the license plate. If they spotted the stolen car, they would notify the local police or border authorities.
I think this worked, at least for a while. Thefts seemed to decline somewhat. But I haven't paid much attention in a long time.
Anyway, car theft is something police understand. It's a simple crime, with a nice hunk of evidence, easily identifiable.
But I have seen thieves put stolen license plates on a car by using refrigerator magnets to hold the plates right on top of the car's true (or not true) plates. When making an escape, they could turn a corner, the passenger could grab the plates off the front and back and toss them in the brush or the ditch, get back in and, presto!, they're in a different car.
It would be most interesting to know what port the cars are LEAVING from. Texas has a huge port (actually two) in Houston. There's another big one in Galveston. Arms for the Middle East go through the Port of Beaumont (which, along with Port Arthur recently got devastated by Hurricane Rita). There's also Freeport. And, there's Corpus Christi. (Now THAT would be ironic!).
USA doesn't care too much what goes OUT of the country, as long as the items are not on a restricted list (weapons, some software, dual use items), or items going to an embargoed country like Cuba or North Korea. If there's no finance involved (i.e., the goods are "prepaid") there is no letter of credit and the consequent inspection to authorize payment. The custom's declaration attached to the bill of lading will show "car parts" or "used automobile" or "scrap metal" or, well, anything else, and the value, among other information. The best chance for inspection comes on the receiving end, where the customs at the port of entry (or the port of destination if traveling "in bond") will inspect to insure that their govt', the country of destination, is going to get it's proper import taxes paid.
If the consignee (the person or firm receiving the goods) or the consignee's agent is well-known, there may not be an inspection at all. Customs will accept the value and assess the import tax and clear the item for pick-up. The container is lifted by a crane onto a truck and trailer chassis, clamped down, and driven away.
That's how a stolen car can go anywhere in the world without anyone seeing it. That's also how a nuclear bomb can come into the United States, or UK, or anywhere else, without being inspected.
I am very curious about this car theft problem, and would love to have the opportunity to investigate it a little further.
If someone has more information about this case, I would like to hear from you. Maybe Robert could relay something so as to protect our identities. What say, Robert?
Car theft has been a huge problem in Texas for a long time. There are three major categories of theft. First, there is the chop shop. Cars are stolen for the value of specific parts that are expensive or in short supply. The cars are disassembled and "parted out."
Secondly, cars are stolen "to order" for a particular customer (I want a 2003 Toyota Camry) at a particular price.
Third, is the export to Mexico for cash or drugs. The cars targeted vary somewhat by whatever fills the gap in Mexican production, and, basically, whatever is popular. A few years ago, it was Jeeps and similar SUV's. Now the things are everywhere.
Police departments inspect the used parts yards routinely (at least in the major cities), and check both the auto bodies on the yard, and the paperwork showing purchases. Serial numbers without paperwork (title transfers signed by the previous owners, or transfers of wrecks from insurance companies, etc.) are presumed to show a stolen car or car part. The police don't play around, and yards (and their employees) can get in big trouble fast. (As one fellow lawyer told me, "I can mess around with that DNA stuff and might get a client off, but when the cops find a damn serial number my guy's going to prison.)
The used parts business is HUGE. Hundreds of millions of dollars.
"To order" cars are complicated, because the idea is to generate a good title document and registration so nobody can tell the car is a stolen vehicle, and it can be insured. The process is very involved, and almost always uses a "cut-out" to switch the title with a vehicle that has been wrecked, brought in from another state that does not have similar title laws, or been seized for "unpaid repairs" or etc.
About ten or fifteen years ago (time flies), the theft situation was so bad, and insurance premiums in Texas were rising so fast because of theft, that the insurance companies banded together to watch the roads leading to the Mexican border. The plan was to consolidate reports of stolen cars from various police departments and convey them to watchers on the half-dozen or more roads leading to the Mexican border. The theory was that a car stolen near Houston, for example, even if driven straight to Mexico (which they often were), would be on the road for six or seven hours. A theft in Dallas would add at least four hours more. During that time, the theft info could be forwarded to the watchers, who would be on the lookout for the make, model, and color of the vehicle, and check the license plate. If they spotted the stolen car, they would notify the local police or border authorities.
I think this worked, at least for a while. Thefts seemed to decline somewhat. But I haven't paid much attention in a long time.
Anyway, car theft is something police understand. It's a simple crime, with a nice hunk of evidence, easily identifiable.
But I have seen thieves put stolen license plates on a car by using refrigerator magnets to hold the plates right on top of the car's true (or not true) plates. When making an escape, they could turn a corner, the passenger could grab the plates off the front and back and toss them in the brush or the ditch, get back in and, presto!, they're in a different car.
It would be most interesting to know what port the cars are LEAVING from. Texas has a huge port (actually two) in Houston. There's another big one in Galveston. Arms for the Middle East go through the Port of Beaumont (which, along with Port Arthur recently got devastated by Hurricane Rita). There's also Freeport. And, there's Corpus Christi. (Now THAT would be ironic!).
USA doesn't care too much what goes OUT of the country, as long as the items are not on a restricted list (weapons, some software, dual use items), or items going to an embargoed country like Cuba or North Korea. If there's no finance involved (i.e., the goods are "prepaid") there is no letter of credit and the consequent inspection to authorize payment. The custom's declaration attached to the bill of lading will show "car parts" or "used automobile" or "scrap metal" or, well, anything else, and the value, among other information. The best chance for inspection comes on the receiving end, where the customs at the port of entry (or the port of destination if traveling "in bond") will inspect to insure that their govt', the country of destination, is going to get it's proper import taxes paid.
If the consignee (the person or firm receiving the goods) or the consignee's agent is well-known, there may not be an inspection at all. Customs will accept the value and assess the import tax and clear the item for pick-up. The container is lifted by a crane onto a truck and trailer chassis, clamped down, and driven away.
That's how a stolen car can go anywhere in the world without anyone seeing it. That's also how a nuclear bomb can come into the United States, or UK, or anywhere else, without being inspected.
I am very curious about this car theft problem, and would love to have the opportunity to investigate it a little further.
If someone has more information about this case, I would like to hear from you. Maybe Robert could relay something so as to protect our identities. What say, Robert?
Sorry for the double-post. I thought I had lost my connection.
Has anyone seen my '63 Dodge Dart?
Admit it, Kemaste. That car wasn't stolen. You abandoned it, didn't you? (P.S. Did it have the push-button transmission?)
pythagoras, johnb--thanks for the insight. I definitely do not doubt that this is really happening. I have never questioned the connection between the Mexican mafia and jihadist, at all. I was just curious to know a little bit more about the logistics. Apparently, this is far from hard to pull of when you have a network of cooperative individuals and the impossibility of scrutinizing everything that goes on.
So much for the virtues of open borders.
Texan:
Are you sure these smuggling operators need to rely on established major US (including Texan) ports? Is it possible that these vehicles are being smuggled out of much smaller coastal US coastal communities? Perhaps, say, Alabama or North Carolina ports?
Is it possible that these vehicles are being smuggled out of Texas in large trucks that have thus far eluded detection? If so, they could use any US port or coastal town with a harbor that could accommodate sea-going vessels large enough to carry autos on to smuggle the cars from.
Could these vehicles vehicles be entering Mexico with the full knowledge of Mexican police who have been bribed by jihadist organizations to look the other way as the cars are being smuggled into Mexico?
Once the cars are actually IN Mexico, could they not be smuggled out of Mexican ports very easily? We believe so.
Is it possible that these stolen vehicles are also entering Mexico with counterfeited license plates and papers indicating they are legitimately rented cars? And thereby fooling Mexican authorities?
And could these vehicles also be dissembled and smuggled out of the US in parts in crates? Most crates coming in or out of the US are never inspected--there are too many of them.
As you know, most airlines carry commercial cargo with many crates on board. Even on international flights. And still very FEW of such crates are x-rayed or inspected. Could such uninspected crates be carrying dissassembled stolen vehicles' parts and leaving the US by AIR????
pythagoras
No, I am not "sure" that smugglers have to rely on established major ports. In fact they do not. But exporting is not the problem for the smuggler. As I mentioned, the US does not care too much what leaves the country, other than some dual use military hardware and software, goods to embargoed countries, etc. So, established major ports are convenient, economical, and busy. In fact, there is a thriving demand for older Mercedes automobiles, late 70s and early 80s. They are well-made, well-known, cheap in the USA, easy to repair and service, and look good. They are bought on the used market in Texas and shipped to mid-east locations all the time, according to my mechanic.
Yes to most of your other questions.
Certainly, stolen cars can be taken to other ports, even out of state ones. And they can be smuggled in a wheeled trailer rather than in a container that is put on a trailer chassis. However, that adds nothing to operational security. A trailer (you know, the big box with wheels) may have to be loaded or unloaded with the driver present. If the driver is not part of the gang, he may figure out what is going on, seeing a car rather than a load of potatoes. This is particularly true if the cargo is not "roll-on-roll-off" (where the trailer is shipped overseas with the goods). Roll-on-roll-off is more expensive than a simple container, and may not be available to some destinations. Containers travel the world over. Although both a trailer and a container will have a manifest, and either may be inaccurate, the driver is less likely to open the container. This adds an element of security, as any shipping company with port access (i.e., licensed to pick up and deliver goods through the port) will send out a contract driver to pick up a container and deliver it to the port. The driver is given the number of the container to identify the load. He probably won't know what's in it until he sees the manifest that travels with the container.
The container delivery to the port is economical for the shipper (and hence the smuggler) because the container trucker can make a backhaul load easier than the trailer truck driver, since he will be at the port already, where plenty of outbound container business is to be had, and he doesn't have to stand around half a day for a trailer truck to be loaded.
Yes, too, to Mexican bribery. I would not expect this to happen right at the border, unless the volume of deliveries made the locals get suspicious and start asking questions. The most likely spots for the bribes are the checkpoints maintained by the Mexicans about ten or fifteen miles inside the border, on each of the highways leading to the interior. This is where the incoming traffic is cleared for further travel. The driver of an automobile is issued a "visa" or "pass" and the identity of the vehicle is documented. In my experience, this is a rather straight-forward transaction, but I wasn't smuggling. The vehicle has to be accounted for when the driver leaves the country (and the passengers have to be accounted for when the vehicle leaves the country). There is plenty of room for footsy on this, of course. And other things. I have heard of the Police actually robbing Americans at these stops. Mexico can be pretty wild. In 1976 I took a train from Nuevo Laredo (on the border) to Mexico City. The waiter in the club car reached over and pulled down our window shade about sundown, near Monterrey. He explained that the Bandits (communist guerillas)would shoot at the light, and showed me a bullet hole through the side of the coach that he said had been sustained on the last trip.
Yes, I suspect that once a vehicle is in Mexico, it could be smuggled on by sea rather easily, but I would only be guessing on this. I do not know how carefully Mexico looks at what is going out. Some of the countries in Central America are constantly on the lookout for the illegal export of pre-columbian artifacts, for example. However, to support your point, I do know that stolen American cars (particularly 4-wheel drive vehicles) are in demand in central america, so further export overland is certainly taking place.
Of course, once you add bribery to the equation, anything is possible. But it may not be economical.
Yes. I think it is possible that cars can enter Mexico with counterfeit license plates and forged documents purporting to show them as rental vehicles. However, just as private vehicles are documented at the inspection stations, so too would be rental vehicles. After some length of time, the non-appearance of the vehicle exiting the country would prompt an inquiry to the "Rental Agency" and the scheme would be exposed. If bribery were relied upon, the counterfeits and forgeries would not be necessary in the first place.
When I have taken a vehicle into Mexico, I have done so both with and without insurance. Your regular insurance policy issued in the United States EXCLUDES coverage in Mexico (although this may eventually change with the NAFTA treaty). It has to be purchased separately. If you go as far as the checkpoint, they will ask if you are covered, as traffic accidents are a criminal offense in Mexico. Besides, NOBODY wants to go to jail in Mexico. You just don't want to know . . .
Driving without insurance is risky, and I will never do it again. I was in Matamoros one night after (during?) the local elections. Everybody was racing through the streets, drunk, waiving flags and banners from the backs of trucks. I was truly horrified. I'm now too old for that kind of stress. (Hell, I think that's what aged me!)
Yes, vehicles could be disassembled and smuggled out in crates. And I agree that most crates are never inspected, at least not in the US. But disassembly and re-assembly does not make economic sense. Shipping spare parts, used parts, does make sense. Also, leaving wheels and tires (for example) behind would save space and weight, which may or may not help in any particular instance. But to me it would make more sense to send the whole vehicle, and avoid the time and labor in the disassembly, unless the whole idea was to sell only parts.
Air shipment is also a possibility. But this is vastly more expensive that ocean freight. Also, an airline is going to be a lot more careful about looking at the cargo (although I admit they are still very lax after 9/11). If the carrier knows the shipment is a vehicle, they will be tighter about requiring the fuel tank to be drained, battery disconnected, etc., for safety reasons.
From the standpoint of the smuggler, the object is to minimize the number of transfers, which means minimizing the number of people handling the cargo, and the number of opportunities for inspection and documentation. And if volume is an issue, then economics may become very important. Economics may be of no consequence for a single, one-time transaction.