Recent news reports and a rebuke on social media from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have brought attention to the case of an illegal migrant from India who was arrested in Indiana in June after being found driving a semi containing $2.8 million worth of stolen tungsten oxide powder that was scheduled to be shipped to Japan.
Cargo theft has been soaring across the U.S. and has increased 36 percent this year over the same period in 2024, according to Trucking.org.
Officials say Deepak Kumar, 31, illegally picked up the cargo in Pennsylvania on June 25, then drove off with the toxic compound.
Tungsten oxide powder is used in armor-piercing bullets, ceramics, lasers, optical products, and high-tech windows, according to the New York Post.
After the theft was reported to police, investigators used a Flock camera system to track Kumar’s semi and the vehicle was located in Indiana traveling on Interstate 70 near Greenfield.
The Greenfield Police Department said in a statement in June that officers conducted a traffic stop and found Kumar in the driver’s seat. He reportedly presented police with three pieces of identification: a fake New York driver’s license, an invalid federal work permit issued out of California, and a valid California commercial driver’s license (CDL).
Kumar was issued a CDL by California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom’s government because the migrant had obtained Employment Authorization Documents, despite being in the country illegally. California DMV authorities based their issuance of a CDL on the work permit without ascertaining if Kumar was a legal resident.
“At 6 a.m. on June 27, the Greenfield Police Department (GPD) received an alert about a semi truck traveling west on I-70 entering Hancock County, Indiana, that was believed to have been involved in a cargo theft incident in Pennsylvanian on June 25,” CDL Life reported on June 29.
According to the Greenfield Police Department’s statement on June 28:
Mr. Kumar is suspected of using fraudulent documents to obtain a load of nearly 40,000 pounds of Tungsten Oxide Powder that was being shipped to Japan. The value of the cargo Mr. Kumar fraudulently received is $2,857,500.00 and was being shipped to Mitsubishi Materials Corporation in Japan.
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Mr. Kumar was arrested at the stop location and taken to the Hancock County Jail. The Hancock County Prosecutor’s Office will determine if Mr. Kumar will be criminally charged with Indiana crimes related to the traffic stop and subsequent search warrant findings.
“We commend B Squad officers, both day shift and night shift, who worked together on this traffic stop to recover this stolen property,” the Department added.
Kumar “was arrested on theft charges and later transferred to McFarland, California, where he remains in ICE custody,” the Post noted on July 22.
The Department of Homeland Security took issue on Thursday with the way some media outlets reported the story by identifying Kumar as a “Fresno man.” DHS noted he is not from Fresno, but is “an illegal alien from India whose criminal history includes multiple arrests for fraud, swindling, identity theft, forgery, and larceny”:
The powder is owned by the Mitsubishi Materials Corporation and was set to be shipped from the U.S. to their Japanese facility.
The shipment of 40,000 pounds of merchandise has since been returned to the Mitsubishi Materials Corporation.
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