A Sopranos-style organised crime racket in which stolen luxury cars are shipped overseas for quick cash has been uncovered in Australia. 

It’s suspected thousands of cars in Australia are being stolen, dismantled and sent to the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, India and parts of Africa. 

The so-called ‘ghost cars’ are taken from public parks, streets and private businesses, then illegally driven to clandestine chop shops before being shipped abroad. 

The chop shops are disguised as unbranded, nameless auto-recycling businesses scattered throughout Melbourne suburbs. 

It’s also suspected the criminals behind the international racket load intact luxury cars into freight containers which are swiftly shipped overseas. 

Other vehicles, including the Toyota Prado, Landcruiser and HiLux, are dismantled to maximise space in shipping containers and boost criminal profits. 

Stolen vehicles are often cut in half, with only the more valuable front section making the trip for its engine and electronics. 

It’s been revealed thieves use easily-purchased, cheap on-board diagnostic (OBD) devices to activate stolen vehicles and whisk them away. 

A Mercedes stolen from Melbourne was spotted in Dubai

The device mirrors a car owner’s programmed key. 

It’s understood crime gangs armed with OBDs mainly target Toyotas, a popular make regarded as ‘global’ vehicles easily transferred to foreign markets. 

Auto trade sources told the Herald Sun the stolen car shipments are rarely intercepted by border control officials, whose focus is searching freight for drugs, tobacco and weapons. 

Damning statistics reveal 20 per cent of Victoria’s stolen cars are never recovered.

This equates to 6,600 of the 33,018 vehicles stolen in 2024-2025. 

In a shock twist, a Melbourne man was shocked to find his stolen car on the road in Dubai while he was holidaying in the United Arab Emirates location.

It’s understood the man’s car was stolen months before his trip and he had forgotten all about it. 

But he took a closer look when he saw the vehicle and spotted it bore the same stickers he placed on the vehicle when he was driving it around Melbourne.

Other cars including the Toyota Prado, Landcruiser and HiLux are chopped up to maximise space in shipping containers and boost criminal profits

Unfortunately, his car had a new owner so there was nothing the man could do to persuade local police to ship the vehicle back to Melbourne. 

Authorities regard Dubai as a hub for stolen vehicles with cars coming into the location from all over the world.

In February, 2017, a near-new Mercedes-Benz C-Class coupe was stolen from a Glen Iris family home in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs only to turn up intact with it’s original number plate in Dubai months later.

An Endeavour Hills man was charged with the theft but the family never saw their Mercedes again.

The racket mirrors a plot line from classic Mafia TV show The Sopranos in which crime boss Tony Soprano meets with Italian crime figures to discuss a price for shipping American cars to foreign countries.

According to sources, a local criminal practice of scrapping VINs and registering or selling stolen cars locally, known as ‘rebirthing’, is more difficult than chopping and exporting vehicles overseas. 

‘Exporting is easier than rebirthing or re-registering. There’s no export controls. You just cut them up,’ a source told the Herald Sun.

Specialist vehicle crime investigators last month took down a major bust at the Melbourne docks part of a probe into a two-state syndicate exporting cars stolen using OBDs.

A Toyota Landcruiser was found in a shipping container before it could be sent overseas

A stolen Toyota was recovered by police at the Melbourne docks