A federal jury has convicted two Indian nationals in a cargo theft scheme that prosecutors say stole at least $2 million worth of electronics, appliances and other freight from shippers across Southern California and beyond. Arshpreet Singh, identified as 28 and from Sacramento, and Vikramjeet Singh, 31, of Fontana, were found guilty following a seven-day trial of conspiring to steal cargo rather than deliver it to its intended destinations.
According to MyNewsLA.com, Arshpreet Singh was found guilty of one federal count of conspiracy to commit theft from interstate or foreign shipments and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, while Vikramjeet Singh was convicted of the theft conspiracy count but acquitted of the wire fraud charge. U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang, who presided over the case, has scheduled sentencing hearings for Jan. 20, per the same report. Prosecutors say Arshpreet Singh faces up to 20 years in federal prison, while Vikramjeet Singh faces up to five years.
How the Scheme Worked
The scheme relied on the appearance of legitimate business, not just brazen theft. Federal authorities said the suspects purchased or fraudulently used legitimate trucking companies to bid on and win authentic shipping contracts, then simply never delivered the freight. Separately, in an earlier account of the broader investigation, Victor Valley News reported that the suspects used or fraudulently obtained legitimate trucking companies to secure real shipping contracts before diverting the shipments instead of delivering them.
Once the co-conspirators took possession of cargo after winning shipping bids, the stolen goods reportedly included televisions, laptops, vacuums, LED lights, shoes, tires and other appliances and high-value consumer goods, the same report notes. That earlier account also placed the underlying investigation on a much longer timeline, describing it as spanning from March 2021 through June 2025 and centered on a group referred to as the Singh Organization.
Thefts Spread Across Ten Cities and Into Texas
Per MyNewsLA.com, the reported theft locations spanned Fontana, Chino, Long Beach, Vernon, Commerce, City of Industry, Santa Fe Springs, Compton, Pico Rivera and Moreno Valley, California, along with Perris, plus a location as far away as Grand Prairie, Texas. The geographic spread illustrates how a single trucking-fraud operation can touch freight moving through some of the region's busiest logistics corridors, from the Inland Empire's warehouse belt to the ports-adjacent cities near Long Beach.
One detail remains unresolved in the public record: Victor Valley News identified Arshpreet Singh as 27 years old and living in Rancho Cucamonga at the time of the 2025 indictment, while MyNewsLA.com's more recent report on the conviction lists him as 28 and from Sacramento. Neither the age nor the hometown discrepancy has been reconciled in available reporting.
Part of a Broader Regional Surge
The conviction lands amid what cargo-security firm Overhaul describes as a rise in thefts specifically in what it calls the Southern California Red Zone, according to the company's Q2-2026 cargo theft report. Overhaul recorded 605 cargo theft incidents nationwide in the second quarter of 2026, a 5% increase from the first quarter, though still a 5% decrease compared with the same quarter in 2025. The firm expects activity to increase during the back half of 2026, reaching levels comparable to the second half of last year.
Southern California has seen other large cargo-theft cases surface in recent months. The CBS Los Angeles reported that Los Angeles County deputies seized roughly $7 million in stolen goods, including televisions, power tools, golf carts, all-terrain vehicles, plush toys, shoes and air-conditioning units, during an investigation between December 2025 and February 2026 that also recovered $1 million in cash, led to nine arrests and involved 13 search warrants served across Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Around the same time, the San Bernardino Sun reported that Rialto police had fielded reports of cargo theft-related activity at a local Pilot Travel Center since it opened roughly two years earlier.
A National Pattern of Freight Fraud
Cargo theft schemes exploiting the trucking industry's bidding system have also surfaced outside California. A joint LAPD-FBI investigation led to a May 2026 federal indictment in Tennessee of 12 people accused of stealing more than $2 million in Nike shoes from a Memphis warehouse, according to LAPD Online. That case named six former Nike employees among the defendants, with two alleged buyers accused of paying more than $900,000 for stolen shoes later resold online and through the marketplace Coolkicks.
The federal statute underlying the Singh case, 18 U.S. Code § 659, covers theft from interstate or foreign shipments carried by common carriers. With sentencing set for Jan. 20, the exact penalties both men will face remain to be determined by Judge Hwang.
