Grand jury indicts 8 in cargo theft scheme tied to hacked data | #hacking | #cybersecurity | #infosec | #comptia | #pentest | #hacker

Led by an alleged Uzbek mastermind, a cargo theft gang has been indicted for stealing $4.49 million in retail goods using information from hackers who penetrated legitimate companies to commit fraudulent pickups and deliveries.

The accused thieves “interacted with other criminal syndicates, who conducted phishing scams to hack and steal the shipment information,” according to a recent joint announcement by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, New York City Police Department and Business Integrity Commission.

Organized crime syndicate hackers infiltrated normal shipping processes by impersonating real trucking carriers to win shipment bids on load boards. The syndicate fraudulently secured load information for specific deliveries from victim brokers.

“We believe that many small businesses were harmed by this theft, some of which may not be able to recover from their financial losses,” District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. said. “Furthermore, the intersection of sophisticated online hacking and large-scale theft is deeply concerning and will only grow more prevalent, and we are using every tool available to stay ahead of this emerging trend.”

Murodullo Khasanov, 40, a citizen of Uzbekistan, is accused of coordinating and managing at least six multistate schemes. An Interpol Red Notice alert from his home country for fraud was issued for his return while he was living in Brooklyn. A U.S. immigration warrant for his arrest also was out, and he could be deported for overstaying his visa.

Khasanov reportedly used encrypted messages on WhatsApp and Telegram to send false documents and fraudulently obtained load information to his associates. He is accused of dispatching drivers to impersonate the motor carriers to steal cargo loads. The illicitly obtained goods purportedly were diverted to New York City to be sold on the black market.

A New York State Supreme Court grand jury indicted him and seven others: Nodir Kobilov, Shavkatbek Mamadjanov, Rakhmiddin Abdullaev, Aleksey Vorobyev, Nizom Ismoilov, Doston Mardoev and Dilshod Nabiev.

Aleksey Vorobyev oversees a shipment of allegedly stolen copper being offloaded. (New York Supreme Court: Statement of Facts)

“The defendants allegedly received the winning bids from hacker groups, with whom the defendants coordinated these activities. They would then allegedly lease tractor trucks and affix the name and registration number of the real shipping carrier that was supposed to make the pickup. They would then drive to the logistics center, pick up the goods and coordinate further shipment into and through Manhattan,” the announcement stated.

Cargo apparently was stolen from logistics sites in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia.

The accused are each charged with one fourth-degree count of conspiracy and various second-degree counts of grand larceny. Other charges include first- and second-degree counts of grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.

Prosecutors are building a case for a purported crime spree spanning from October 2025 to April 2026. A wide range of law enforcement agents participated in the bust including the FBI’s Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force in New York and Organized Crime and Cyber Crime teams in Philadelphia) as well as NYPD’s 60th and 61st precinct Field Intelligence teams.

“A theft ring this sophisticated, one that used hacked data to impersonate shipping companies and intercept cargo, doesn’t get dismantled without serious coordination across multiple levels of law enforcement,” said Greg Ehrie, chief security officer at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “Our region is a critical link in the national supply chain, and we’ll keep protecting its security and integrity for the people, businesses and communities that depend on it.”

The defendants are accused of having different roles, some acting as drivers.

New York Supreme Court: Statement of Facts

In two cigarette shipment thefts in March, the crime ring was accused of twice hitting CJ Logistics America in Colonial Heights, Va., taking 678 cases worth $709,923 intended for Starboard Holdings in Miami and 720 cases valued at $2.62 million meant for a Tennessee warehouse.

Thieves allegedly took the first load to a Bordentown, N.J., truck stop where they met “multiple other associates” to offload cases into two box trucks driven to a Bronx warehouse. Cigarettes from the second apparent heist went to the same warehouse. A few days later, all the cigarettes reportedly were recovered from the warehouse in a raid that included the NYPD’s Criminal Enterprise Investigation Section.

Five defendants are Uzbekistan nationals who illegally entered the U.S., a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Transport Topics. Several were drivers who had encounters with Customs and Border Protection agents near the Mexican border and “were later released by the Biden administration,” the spokesperson said.

In 2022, CBP encountered Ismoilov near Laredo, Texas, and Mamadjanov in San Luiz, Ariz. The next year, CBP agents stopped Nabiev in San Diego and Khasanov near San Ysidro Port of Entry.

Although Mardoev legally entered the U.S. four years ago, he became illegal when his visa was revoked. Last February, he tried unsuccessfully to enter Canada. A few months ago, he and Nabiev voluntarily returned to Uzbekistan. (Nabiev had been arrested in Ohio for obstructing police, fraud, larceny and disrupting public peace.)

Ismoilov was arrested in December 2023 for driving a commercial vehicle without a license in Wisconsin and is being processed for deportation.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Mamadjanov in December as a criminal illegal alien from Uzbekistan. He had been arrested for larceny in New Jersey after an attempted cargo theft. He allegedly drove to Atlantic Coast Freezers to steal a load of beef with a fake placard impersonating JT Freight Inc. on Khasanov’s Cascadia Freightliner. Employees noticed the sign attached incorrectly when he tried to retrieve the load and called police.

When asked to comment about the cargo theft case and deportations of the Uzbek defendants, a DHS spokesperson replied, “It is incredibly dangerous for illegal aliens, who often don’t know our traffic laws or even English, to be operating vehicles on America’s roads.”