He Stole Thousands of Luxury Cars and Disappeared with over $70 Million 😳

did you know that a Chinese intelligence officer moved to New York and formed the largest car theft gang in American history their specialty was stealing luxury cars normally if the police can't locate a stolen car they usually find some evidence of it like the car being disposed after expensive parts have been removed or the car being used by an innocent buyer however this man and his gang managed to steal thousands of cars without leaving a single trace the cars simply vanished so where did th

ese cars go what led his gang from China to America and why did a Chinese intelligence officer resort to stealing cars in New York New York City remains one of the world's largest cities according to studies it is considered the epitome of luxury it boasts the highest number of affluent individuals who own expensive cars back in 1999 there was a significant surge in car thefts in New York within just a month and a half staggering 48 luxury cars were stolen and vanished in a matter of seconds the

thieves were incredibly fast and sneaky they silently opened the cars started them up and drove off without a trace what made it even more peculiar was that these stolen cars never resurfaced typically stolen cars are found stripped of their valuable parts as the thieves sell them off however these cars that the gang took simply disappeared leaving the police with no leads it left everyone wondering what were these thieves doing with the stolen cars where were they taking them these questions h

ad the police scratching their heads speculating that perhaps the cars were being shipped out of the country it turns out that the best place for exporting a large number of cars like these was the port in Brooklyn New York the New York police team specifically from the car theft Investigation Department went to Brooklyn's Port to conduct their investigation surprisingly they didn't find any suspicious activity related to a car theft gang they suspected that they were dealing with a big entity p

ossibly a gang from the organized crime world however the person behind all these operations turned out to be someone unexpected his name is Min Jin Yang a Chinese man who used to be an intelligence officer in the Chinese army he was the sole person responsible for stealing thousands of luxury cars from New York making an astonishing $40 million which is equivalent to $75 million today question at hand is how he managed to accomplish it to find the answer let's first delve into the background of

Min Jinyang after serving as an intelligence officer in the Chinese army until 1990 he was discharged and relocated to Shanghai a prosperous city with a high demand for luxury cars however these cars were not readily available for purchase in China this is where Yang identified an opportunity he approached the gangs in Shanghai and presented them with a business proposition Yang informed the gang leader that his previous military experience included smuggling expertise and he was well versed in

all the intricacies of the trade he successfully convinced the gang leader that he could import cars from abroad which the gang leader could then distribute within China through his extensive network the gang leader was quite intrigued by the idea mainly because cars tend to be quite expensive in China you see he could purchase a car for $100,000 and sell it for $200,000 in China making it a highly profitable business venture Yang on the other hand agreed to a 42 60 profit split deal with the l

eader to help young kickstart his gang in operations in the city where the cars are the leader generously provided him with half a million dollars knowing that New York would be the perfect target to acquire all types of cars he desired Yang embarked on his journey with a half million dollars utilizing his military experience he entered America with a fake identity adopting the name Kenny and cleverly posing as a struggling immigrant Yang's primary objective was to seamlessly integrate into Amer

ican society and appear like an ordinary individual to avoid appearing wealthy he opted to drive an older model Nissan Altima Yang was accompanied by his trusted associate Poi Chao who provided valuable assistance their initial task involved locating a suitable warehouse to store the stolen cars before shipping them to China the warehouse had to meet specific criteria it needed to be situated far from any police station and in a peaceful area with minimal issues or criminal activity finding such

a pristine and inconspicuous location in New York a city renowned for its high crime rates proved to be quite a challenge Yang and Chao have recently discovered the perfect warehouse after weeks of diligent research their intention was to rent it so they decided to establish an anonymous company this way in the event of an investigation it would not trace back to Yang his aim was to safeguard himself in case any unforeseen circumstances arose to begin Yang needed a reliable crew he chose to rec

ruit trustworthy individuals from the Chinese community as he knew he could depend on them together they transformed the warehouse into what appeared to be a food storage facility they brought in food boxes and strategically placed them at the front giving the impression that the warehouse belonged to a food company the majority of the food they brought in was dry and packed allowing for long term storage in the refrigerator to ensure everything went smoothly they set up surveillance cameras aro

und the warehouse and kept a close watch on every street corner now here's where it gets really exciting Yang being new to the world of car theft didn't want to get his hands dirty so he embarked on a mission to find someone experienced who could help him out he started visiting car garages and auctions meeting a lot of interesting people along the way and guess what he finally found the perfect person Dean an expert car thief their paths crossed at a salvage vehicle auction it's amazing he prop

osed that Dean take charge of the stealing operations whether by doing it himself or hiring someone to assist it was a match made in heaven Dean who has a lot of experience knew several other skilled thieves who could work alongside him in this scenario Yang would handle the dealings with Dean who in turn would coordinate with the other thieves Yang's main goal was to distance himself as much as possible from the thefts he preferred to remain unknown and let Dean take charge of the operations in

terestingly Dean had a trusted friend in the business named Mario Lopez who was even better than Dean at stealing cars when Yong presented the opportunity Dean immediately thought of Mario Dean approached Mario and explained that there was someone willing to buy any stolen car and that he could handle the transaction this kind of offer is quite tempting for car thieves as the most challenging part is usually finding a buyer for the stolen vehicle with a buyer already lined up the job becomes muc

h easier Dean expressed his readiness to take on the job and Mario also refrain from stealing the cars himself so here is how the theft is organized the operation includes targeting opening and bypassing the security systems of the cars and then finding someone else to actually steal them and take them to a hidden location Yang oversees the warehouse where the stolen cars are prepared for shipping all the workers involved are Chinese or Asian individuals whom Yang trusts this allows Yang to rema

in separate from the theft operations and maintain his anonymity with only his closest assistant knowing his true involvement once everything was ready Yang instructed Dean to initiate the theft operations specifically targeting luxury vehicles Dean then passed on the orders to Mario who coordinated a network of thieves Mario focused on locations frequented by wealthy individuals such as luxurious shopping malls prestigious residential streets and even parking lots he possessed remarkable skills

when it comes to car theft he was capable of stealing any vehicle at any time and in any place when he identifies a car of interest Mario approaches it discreetly gently shattering the window and slipping inside through the opening instead of forcefully breaking the lock by avoiding lock damage he prevents the car's computer from shutting down ensuring that it can still be started one of Mario's most impressive techniques involves utilizing a laptop to hack into the car's security system by con

necting it to the vehicle's computer he reprograms it and just like that the car starts with any regular key his exceptional speed allows him to accomplish this theft in less than a minute once the car security systems are disabled the team ensures that the stolen car is taken to a safe spot they usually choose fancy parking lots with lots of expensive cars to blend in and avoid suspicion the reason behind this strategy is that expensive cars often have GPS devices installed to be thorough Yang

instructs his team to scan the cars remove the GPS and dispose of it now let's consider a scenario where the GPS device is already activated perhaps the owner realized their car was stolen activated the GPS and informed the police in such cases the thief parks the stolen car among the fancy cars in the parking lot and leaves it there for two or three days if the car remains undisturbed for this duration it indicates that the police are not actively searching for it and have no clue about its whe

reabouts the thief returns to retrieve the car making sure that they are not being followed this was all part of Yang's well thought out plan leveraging his experience as an intelligence officer Yang had advised Dean to have the thieves bring the car and park it a few blocks away from the warehouse to keep its location hidden only Dean and his friend Mario were aware of this arrangement once the thief leaves the car Dean takes it to the warehouse however after all these Yang had one final test t

o ensure they are not being pursued by the police he instructs Dean to drive around the warehouse and if any other vehicle is observed following the same route it would indicate that they are being trailed to ensure Dean's safety they used two methods during the surveillance process firstly they installed surveillance cameras outside the warehouse to monitor the street for any vehicles following him secondly they had another car patrolling a wider area to keep an eye out for the police once Yang

deemed it safe he gave the order to bring the vehicle into the warehouse Yang took these precautions to ensure a seamless operation once the car was securely inside the warehouse the Chinese team took charge their responsibility was to prepare the vehicle for shipment they carefully inspected and addressed any issues with the cars such as repairing locks creating new keys and reprogramming the car's computer once the Chinese team finishes their meticulous work on the vehicle they ensure it look

s brand new before shipping it to China they carefully loaded the cars into containers they have brought cleverly disguising the manifests to show that its food inside and ensuring the weights match perfectly they take great care to avoid raising any suspicion instead of taking the direct route to the port Yang chose to ship the cars to the farthest one to minimize the chances of any police searches initially the container would be transported to New Jersey which is conveniently close to New Yor

k from there it would be loaded onto a train that travels across the entire country until it reaches California the furthest point from New York Yang orchestrated this elaborate plan to avoid attracting unwanted attention from the authorities and also because California's ports are more accessible for shipping to China once the container arrives at a California port it would be loaded onto a ship disguised as a regular food container however this ship is not destined for China it is actually hea

ded in a different direction along the way they would secretly rendezvous with another ship and discreetly transfer the container onto it which would then continue its journey to China the owners of the second ship were fully aware of the true contents of the container and had a detailed manifest of the cars this is how Yang managed to successfully run his gang for many years over a period of five years Yang and his associates successfully stole thousands of cars from New York leaving the police

completely puzzled despite their best efforts the authorities were unable to apprehend them or find any evidence surprisingly there was a growing demand for these stolen vehicles in China to meet the increasing demand for car exports they decided to target car dealerships where they could steal multiple cars at once Yang instructed Dean and his friend Mario to focus on these dealerships Mario cleverly disguised himself as a customer and visited one of the dealerships for a test drive while enga

ging in conversation with the salesman he discreetly observed where they kept the car keys a box on the wall in the manager's office Mario expressed his gratitude to the salesman and left later that night Mario successfully entered the car dealership after it had closed he went directly to the manager's office and discovered the box containing car keys surprisingly all of the keys were for luxurious cars Mario then signalled his crew outside and seven of them joined him inside he quickly distrib

uted the keys and each person selected a car and drove away in different directions the entire operation was completed in just three minutes by the time the alarm was triggered and the police were notified Mario and his friends had already departed with the cars unfortunately one of the stolen cars was involved in an accident causing a significant problem when the police arrived at the scene of the accident they discovered that the car involved had actually been stolen they successfully apprehen

ded the person who was driving and took him in for questioning under pressure he decided to cooperate with the police and provided them with all the information he had he even mentioned the names of Mario and Dean as a result the police formed a team to locate Dean because the driver claimed he was the mastermind behind the thefts they followed Dean for a period of time and eventually he LED them to Yang's warehouse in order to maintain a low profile they parked their cars at a distance from the

warehouse and began closely monitoring the area little did they know that Chao was keeping a close eye on the surroundings of the warehouse with the surveillance he immediately noticed the presence of the investigator's car from the distance and informed Yang about it when Yang discovered the situation he remained calm and prepared he organized his work in the warehouse so that it could be quickly cleaned up if necessary the investigators were monitoring the location and would only enter once t

hey had gathered enough evidence during this time Yong stayed away from bringing in any new cars but he still had some cars inside along with the tools to repair them now he needed to move all these cars and tools out but they were being watched however this was not a challenge for him as he was experienced in handling such situations Yang displayed his mastery by orchestrating a clever plan to transport his cars and equipment he skillfully brought several trucks into the warehouse secretly load

ing all the items without arousing suspicion from the police to deceive the authorities Yang and his gang pretended to be transporting food successfully fooling the police into believing that the warehouse was solely for storing food supplies with their perfect tactics Yang and his gang managed to smoothly remove all the cars and tools right under the noses of the clueless police the police remained completely unaware that they were being outsmarted Yang accomplished his mission of retrieving al

l the important stolen items without a hustle the next day when the police arrived for surveillance they were taken aback to discover that no one had entered or exited the warehouse realizing that they had been outsmarted the police decided to take action they forcefully entered the premises and conducted a thorough search but to their dismay they found nothing the gang had clearly out maneuvered them leaving the police frustrated and perplexed throughout the entire surveillance period Yang mana

ged to keep his identity and appearance concealed leaving the police completely clueless the decision was made to establish contact with Dean the suspect they were familiar with initially they considered arresting him but it was later decided to continue tracking his movements the team kept a close I love you or at least the majority of them additionally they were eager to find out where the cars were as they were still puzzled and couldn't find any leads as part of their surveillance efforts th

e court granted permission to listen in on Dean's phone calls in many of these calls they noticed recurring questions are the agents still watching has the surveillance been stopped when will they be back Dean consistently responded that he didn't know the investigators concluded that the people asking these questions were Dean's accomplices in the operation the same individuals who were present at the warehouse after a period of six months of surveillance a person named Kenny contacted Dean Ken

ny mentioned having an order for two 60 but did not provide any specific details the investigators suspected that Kenny might be the leader of a gang and were concerned about the possibility of more theft operations however they were unaware that Yang whose other name is Kenny genuinely feared his calls would be monitored by the police so he used cryptic language to avoid detection and planned to dispose of the phones frequently to prevent being tracked by the police in order to make it more dif

ficult for investigators to track them he advised his gang members to frequently change their phones listen in on any phone the investigators needed permission from the court therefore every time someone changed their phone they had to obtain new permission now you might be wondering how the investigators managed to find out the new phone numbers well they were still monitoring the phone calls of the gang members families for example when Dean changed his phone they discovered his new number thr

ough his wife's calls once they had Dean's new number they obtained permission to listen in on his conversations by listening to his calls with his partners they were able to uncover the other phone numbers it was a lengthy and extensive effort but it was definitely worth it the investigators were hopeful that their hard work would lead to something significant the investigators found themselves in a situation where they were one step ahead of Yang which brought them a great sense of relief unfo

rtunately Yang's assistance were not as cautious particularly his Chinese partner Chao he seemed to disregard any precautions even openly discussing their dinner plans over the phone which made it quite easy for the investigators to track their movements armed with this valuable information the investigators made the decision to deploy an undercover officer to the restaurant that Chao and Yang often went this turned out to be a significant breakthrough for them as they finally had the opportunit

y to observe the mastermind who had managed to elude them for several years the undercover officer overheard their conversations about a new warehouse that they were planning to rent and through careful investigation managed to uncover the exact location of the warehouse investigators took prompt action and initiated surveillance of the warehouse however they decided to change their monitoring approach this time their goal was to maintain a low profile and avoid any police vehicles nearby they d

evised a strategy to install surveillance cameras on the surrounding buildings allowing them to monitor every corner of the premises additionally they successfully placed a GPS device on one of the containers bound for the warehouse this helped them track the exact location of the vehicles it was a significant turning point in the situation with the police taking control meanwhile Yong continued with his regular activities unaware of the unfolding events he continued to bring new cars to the war

ehouse and even developed new methods to enhance his thefts one of his most cunning tactics involved stealing cars from parking garages where owners entrusted their keys to the guard giving him the opportunity to move the vehicles as needed it appears that Mario Lopez who is a friend of Dean made an agreement with one of the security guards at the garage Mario offered to pay the guard $500 for each car that they were allowed to take the guard enticed by the significant amount of money due to his

low salary accepted the deal this arrangement enabled them to take multiple cars from the garage simultaneously they planned a meeting with the guard took the keys from him tied him up and left him inside the garage this was done to avoid any suspicion that the guard was involved subsequently they drove away with several high end cars later on an individual arrived at the garage and discovered the bound guard lying on the ground they promptly contacted the police however by the time the police

arrived at the garage the stolen cars had already been relocated to a warehouse interestingly didn't we mention that the thieves typically wait for two days after stealing a car to ensure they are not being followed it appears that Yang and his group have become used to their dangerous tasks and have gradually lost some of their vigilance as a result they have been bringing all the stolen vehicles directly to the warehouse without considering the possibility that any of them might be equipped wi

th a GPS tracking device one of the vehicle owners alerted the local police and subsequently initiated the tracking of one of the cars eventually a police officer who was unaware of the ongoing investigation arrived at the warehouse in his official vehicle he had gone there to investigate the source of the GPS signals completely unaware that the largest car theft gang in all of America was operating from that very location the investigators closely monitored the area using surveillance cameras t

hey were aware that their operation was at risk as soon as they spotted the police officer despite their efforts they couldn't prevent him from reaching the warehouse just as the police officer was about to enter the workers inside suddenly came out scattering in all directions it became clear that they had spotted him on their surveillance cameras witnessing the workers fleeing the investigators realized they had to act swiftly this presented the perfect opportunity to intervene and apprehend t

he gang leaving no room for error although they managed to arrest the workers inside the warehouse Yang who went by the alias Kenny was not among them they knew that if he received the news he would once again escape fortunately they had already positioned the surveillance unit outside his residence after an extended period of surveillance the authorities successfully located Kenny's residence subsequently the police maintained constant surveillance on him from a distance when the warehouse work

ers were apprehended the monitoring team received immediate orders to move in and arrest Kenny That night Kenny was apprehended as he was leaving his residence during questioning his true identity was revealed as Min Jin Yang and they found out his past involvement in military intelligence in the Chinese army this sheds light on the confusion surrounding him and his activities over the years unfortunately due to the timing of the raid the authorities were unable to find out the destinations or e

xact locations where the cars were being sold eventually Yang confessed to his involvement in the crime of organized corruption it seems that he couldn't be individually charged with car theft as he had accomplices surprisingly Yang was handed a mere 10 year sentence despite successfully stealing thousands of cars over the past decade it was estimated that his earnings reached a staggering $40 million equivalent to $75 million in today's currency interestingly he stashed away all the money in Ch

ina rendering it impossible for the authorities to recover any of it in the end Yang outsmarted the police despite the mistake that ultimately LED to his downfall the unfolding of events is truly captivating isn't it anyway that concludes our tale if you found it intriguing please consider giving the video a thumbs up and subscribing to the channel thank you for watching check out another video on my channel