An illegal immigrant truck driver allegedly stole nearly $3 million worth of toxic powder before authorities stopped him in his tracks.
Authorities in Greenfield, Indiana, received an alert around 6 a.m. on June 27 about a stolen cargo load reported in Pennsylvania that was believed to be inside a semi-truck on a nearby interstate and spotted the vehicle on a Flock camera. Police caught Deepak Kumar, 31, who hails from India, with the stolen load consisting of 10 pallets of toxic tungsten oxide powder weighing nearly 40,000 pounds.
The chemical is used for armor-piercing rounds, ceramics, lasers, optical products, and high-tech windows, according to KSEE.
Kumar, who was living in Fresno, handed officers a California commercial driver’s license, an invalid work visa, and a fraudulent New York license, according to the local news outlet.
The shipment was reportedly scheduled for pickup on June 24, but was delayed one day. The company alerted authorities after they lost contact with the driver on June 26.
The shipment was bound for Mitsubishi Materials Corporation in Japan.
While executing a search warrant on the truck, officers “confirmed the stolen cargo was present in the trailer,” police said. The stolen cargo was subsequently handed over to a representative of Mitsubishi Materials Corporation.
ICE lodged a detainer with the Bradford County Prison, asking authorities to turn Kumar over to federal immigration authorities rather than release him.
The Indian national snuck past border authorities at an unknown time when he entered the United States, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told The Daily Wire. He also has previous arrests for fraud, swindling, identity theft, forgery, and larceny.
Kumar is currently in ICE custody in California. It’s not clear if local authorities complied with the detainer.
The Trump administration has instituted a massive crackdown on states issuing commercial driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants after a series of fatal crashes. Federal officials have tagged California as one of the worst offenders.
Then-acting ICE Director Todd Lyons warned last year of the potential for a terrorist attack with so many unqualified foreign truckers hauling heavy machinery on American roads.
“We don’t know what they’re carrying across state lines in an 18-wheeler, terrorists will stop at nothing to harm the United States, and it is well within the realm of possibility that some of these trucks … could be carrying toxic chemicals, bombs, or God knows what,” Lyons said.
