About 2,000 California Cars a Year End Up in Mexico: Cartels Rent Ram Pickups, Escalades and Jeeps in the U.S. and Drive Them South, LA Times Reports
About 2,000 vehicles stolen in California end up in Mexico every year, the California Highway Patrol says. Investigators told the Los Angeles Times that rental cars are a growing share: cartel operatives rent heavy-duty Ram pickups, Jeeps, Cadillac Escalades and BMW SUVs in the U.S. and drive them south, often through crossings like San Ysidro into Tijuana. The Times reported it on Oct. 11, 2026.
How the scheme works, according to the Times
The Times says cartels recruit people in the U.S. through social media. Those recruits rent a vehicle for five days, buy the damage waiver and then leave the keys in the car in the rental lot, where an operative picks it up and drives it to Mexico. LAPD Sgt. Juvey Mejia, of a regional auto-theft task force, told the paper the cartels want “anything that can drive through tough terrain to get away from Border Patrol so they can move dope.” Kevin Carter, who runs the Texas recovery firm Collateral Consultants, said a car rented for “a few hundred bucks” is “theirs forever.”
Sharky Laguana, owner of San Francisco’s Bandago Van Rentals, blamed California rules that let rental companies switch on GPS tracking only after the return deadline has passed and the renter has been contacted. The American Car Rental Assn. said its members report “a sharp increase” in thefts from California into Mexico.
Where the vehicles went
According to private investigators cited by the Times, 10 new Ram pickups stolen early this year from Oakland, Los Angeles and Las Vegas airports ended up in parts of Jalisco controlled by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). Six 2026 Jeep Wranglers taken from Oakland and Las Vegas were believed to be headed for the Sinaloa Cartel. Four of the Jeeps have been recovered. In Laredo, Texas, Deputy Police Chief Timothy Tubbs said rental thefts are up 50%, to about 10 a month.
The Times also describes an August case. A CJNG member allegedly picked up a tractor-trailer in Mexicali, across from Calexico, California. Inside was a 2026 Escalade and a Ram pickup, hidden behind hay bales. Soldiers at one checkpoint saw the hay and waved it through. The Times says National Guard troops found the vehicles further on.
Why they rarely come back
Recovery experts told the Times that, once a car is in Mexico, corrupt officials swap its U.S. plates for valid Mexican ones and register it. Highway scanners then never flag it as stolen. Carter said fewer than half of the rental cases he has handled ever reached the U.S. stolen-vehicle database. More: our Tijuana–San Diego page.
Sources
- Los Angeles Times (Steve Fisher, with Puente News Collaborative), “Mexican cartels are building luxury fleets by stealing U.S. rental cars,” Oct. 11, 2026 (Photos: Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times; Carlos Moreno / For The Times, via the Los Angeles Times)
Reported Oct. 11, 2026, from the Los Angeles Times report above. The Narco Blog has not independently confirmed the figures or reached the people quoted. Claims about which cartels received the vehicles come from private investigators and officials cited by the Times. No one in those cases has been shown to be convicted.