A years long car theft epidemic in Canada has gotten so bad that, despite a police crackdown, thieves break into homes just to steal car keys. Thousands of cars vanish each year.
The phenomenon, records and interviews show, is driven in part by an unexpected source: a booming black market for Western vehicles in wartime Russia.
While Western export bans have severed Russia from much of the auto market, they have not tempered the demand for brand-name SUVs and trucks. That has given rise to a sophisticated network of criminals that steals cars, hides them in shipping containers and sends them to Russia, often by way of the Middle East.
