Autoblog

That criminals go to great lengths to accomplish their goals is not news. How they do so can be interesting, however. ABC News has posted a report on its Blotter website detailing an FDLE study on how smugglers "clone" vehicles to make their criminal enterprises easier to run. A few thousand dollars can net a bad guy some high quality decals or wraps that help transform regular trucks into replicas of actual, branded delivery or municipal vehicles. Throw in an official (or official-looking) uniform and criminals can hide in plain sight, traveling freely without raising suspicion. The ABC report tells of one traffic stop in which authorities stopped what appeared to be a Cable/Satellite service van only to find hundreds of pounds of cocaine inside. The van's disguise even included a toll-free number for other drivers to report bad driving. Anyone who called it found themselves on a phone sex line. Smugglers also appear to have a healthy sense of irony if the tale of a bust in Arizona is any indication. There, border patrol agents caught someone ferrying 31 illegal aliens in the back of a van. Its markings? U.S. Border Patrol. Read the whole story here.

[Source: ABC News via Schneier on Security via Instapundit)

The exotic cars caught up in the Philippine smuggling controversy from Lamborghini, Ferrari, Porsche, and others were spared due to pending legal action. The owners of those high-end rides are hoping the legal system can help them regain their cars. Standing firm on her plan to crush the cars to discourage the rampant skirting of the law and smuggling of goods, Philippine President Gloria Arroyo went ahead with automotive destruction as planned, while the exotics sat out this round.

It didn't turn out to be quite the example-setting display of authority that President Arroyo had hoped. She didn't show - her backup helicopter was suffering a mechanical malady - and the officials that did attend took a few hours to get their act together and decide to smoosh some vehicles in the name of deterring smuggling. 18 vehicles eventually met the business end of a trio of backhoes, sending the message that Arroyo would rather forego the estimated $2 million US dollars the cars would have brought at auction. Instead of a multi-million dollar windfall, it looks like there's a new environmentally hazardous site at the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority's impound, and the cars will be sold for scrap for the paltry sum of 150,000 Philippine pesos, a little more than $3,200. Finance secretary Margarito Teves acknowledged that the government would be foregoing revenues to send an anti-smuggling message.

Thanks for the tip, Alex!

[Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer via Autojab]

click the pic above to view a gallery of Year One Bandit Trans Ams

Every now and then when I'm hammering to make time on a road trip, this is what goes through my head: "East bound and down, loaded up and truckin'..." Second only to Star Wars in 1977, Hal Needham's iconic Smokey and the Bandit also seared itself into popular culture like the Space Opera. Thirty years on, a black 2nd-generation Trans Am still makes us think of bootlegging Coors.

To commemorate the Burt Reynolds vehicle, Year One is teaming up with the veteran actor and building a limited number of Bandit inspired Trans Ams. These cars won't be highly suspect like those that pop up on eBay from time to time, or aftermarket kits like those made by Trans Am Specialties and Choo Choo Customs back in the day. No, they'll be the real deal, and Year One isn't taking the easy way out, either. Since the Bandit car was a T/A, all of the Year One cars will be true T/As, and titled as such. You could get away with a Firebird as a basis, but that's not how Year One rolls.

There will be three variations on the Bandit theme, BAN1, thru BAN3. All cars have full body restorations first. Floors are replaced, as are other needed panels, so that the hi-po Ponchos have the best basis to build from. Flush-mounted glass, smooth fender flares, custom projector headlights and LED taillights update the basic car. Chassis mods firm up the structure with subframe connectors, tubular control arms and high performance bushings and springs. The interiors get pimped out in the same custom fashion, with "Bandit" inserts on the door panels, modern seats, a race-inspired gauge cluster and the requisite CB radio. It wouldn't be a Bandit car if you couldn't pick up that mic and say "Snoman, gotcher ears on?" BAN2 and BAN3 packages get increasing amounts of performance from monster aluminum 455s or LS-derived engines, as well as further chassis tweaks and more toys inside the cockpit, like a nav system and race harnesses.

Some history, and Year One's press release after the jump

[Source: Year One]

Gallery: Year One Bandit Trans Ams

In India, car smugglers are apparently a good deal more patient than we can ever recall hearing of in the States. In a case that's less 'Gone in Sixty Seconds' and more 'Gone in Sixty Hours', a man named Ramadoss made it his m.o. to purchase vehicles in Malaysia and Singapore, then dismantle them piece by piece, shipping them to his operation in Chennai (formerly Madras), where he would reassemble them. Doing so saved Ramadoss a mint on customs charges, as he had to pay just 20-25 percent (versus a stifling 118 percent tax). Of course, a bit of elbow grease was required to make money - Ramadoss and his crew sliced up everything, including chassis and bodies using laser cutters, only to re-weld them together at his garages in Chennai for sale to unsuspecting customers.

A police raid of the man's all-too-literal chop-shop turned up 17 vehicles, including everything from a MINI Cooper to a Mitsubishi GTO (read: '3000GT') and an unspecified Mercedes-Benz.

No word yet on what fate will befall the Hardest Working Man in Auto Smuggling, but he has admitted to his crimes and made some financial reparations.

[Source: Mumbai Mirror]