A sophisticated interstate car theft ring operation has been cracked following a three-year investigation led by the Kenosha County Drug Operations Group (KDOG) and an array of law enforcement partners. The operation, which began to unravel from the discovery of a simple found license plate on a rural Kenosha County highway in 2022, has culminated in federal indictments for numerous individuals connected to the ring.
According to a report by Kenosha County, extensive investigative work by KDOG detectives and a coalition of law enforcement agencies including the FBI and IRS-CI was able to thoroughly piece together the structure and reach of the multi-million-dollar criminal network. The investigation extended from Wisconsin to Chicago, encompassing several cities where search warrants were executed. Among the twenty-three faces federal charges are Diaunte Shields, Casha Griffin, Brianna Shields, Lashawn Davis Jr., and Meliek McClarn.
The thieves targeted high-end vehicles, stealing them from residences and even Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee, and were skillfully using professional-grade scanning devices and cloning tools to facilitate their crimes. Vehicles had their VIN plates and radios swapped before being sold off for cash at substantially lower prices, effectively making them harder to trace. Stolen cars were then distributed across the nation, from Las Vegas to Florida and Georgia.
The ring's sophisticated operations did not just limit to efficiently steal cars, but also extended to laundering the proceeds through sham LLCs and real estate transactions. In a statement obtained by Kenosha County, Sheriff David Zoerner expressed his pride in the local sheriff's office's central involvement in the case, highlighting the impressive chain of events that led from a single recovered license plate to the unraveling of a significant criminal enterprise.
Beyond vehicle thefts, the criminal network was also linked to a drug trafficking operation in Whitestown, IN, where large amounts of heroin and methamphetamine were being distributed. During the search warrants, authorities recovered not only stolen vehicles but also a stolen firearm from Detroit, MI, credit card cloning devices, counterfeit titles, as well as high-end clothing and jewelry.
