But U.S. Customs suspected the odd retrieval locale pointed to more than just grand theft auto. They proceeded to open all containers being shipped to Africa by the same person.

“[We found] two additional containers in the yard that were all bound for Lagos, Nigeria,” Woods explained. “This ultimately led to the recovery of six stolen vehicles that had been stolen from dealerships throughout the Dallas area.”

Is it possible that a lone mastermind is responsible for orchestrating the operation? Probably not, but authorities have learned that each of the vehicles in question were lifted during or after test drives by a man who claimed to be responding to an Internet ad posted by the dealerships.

At present, police have a generic description of the suspect and a possible name (and) cell phone number. Woods added the man is likely a “low-level thief,” hired by an unknown U.S. middleman, whom leaders of the crime ring in Nigeria presumably enlisted. HPD said the person whose name was found on the ship's manifest has since been identified. That Garland, Tex. resident has retained an attorney but is not currently cooperating with investigators.

The Honda that led to the shipyard appears to be the anomaly, as most of the stolen rides were Toyota models, all of them brimming with various goods, such as bottled water, lotion, clothes, and rice.

By all accounts, this significant find was a success; however, breaking up these types of rings is difficult in general. U.S. Customs reports that around 6,000 vehicles are exported each month, making the comparison of every manifest with every VIN number virtually impossible.