$1.3M in stolen copper and gear recovered, as organized crime rings shift to target AI data center supply chains

For years, cargo theft has been a retailer's occupation — criminals intercepting user goods similar electronics and sneakers earlier they ever deed store shelves. Now, organized theft rings person recovered a new, acold much lucrative target: the proviso concatenation feeding America's information halfway operation boom.

Investigators with the Cook County Sheriff's Office successful Illinois recovered 2 stolen trailers loaded with $1.3 cardinal worthy of information halfway materials astatine a motortruck gait successful Elk Grove Township (1), conscionable extracurricular Chicago, according to Business Insider (2).

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How the theft unraveled

On June 18, the Sheriff's Office received a extremity astir a trailer reported stolen retired of Pine Hill, Alabama, that had been tracked to a section motortruck yard. When deputies arrived, they recovered astir $300,000 worthy of copper ligament spools wrong and discovered the trailer was carrying Indiana licence plates that had been reported stolen successful Wisconsin, according to Truck Drivers Life. (2)

Copper ligament is indispensable to information halfway construction, utilized extensively successful powerfulness organisation and connectivity. While investigating, the motortruck yard's proprietor told deputies that the aforesaid idiosyncratic who delivered the copper ligament trailer had dropped disconnected a 2nd trailer the week before.

That trailer turned retired to besides beryllium stolen, this clip from Jacksonville, Florida. It contained $1 cardinal worthy of information halfway infrastructure equipment, Business Insider reported (2).

Why information centers person go a people

Cargo theft has traditionally deed retail proviso chains hardest, with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security estimating it costs businesses arsenic overmuch arsenic $35 cardinal annually, Business Insider notes. But the accelerated enlargement of AI-driven information halfway operation has opened a caller and highly profitable frontier for organized theft rings.

According to Verisk CargoNet (3), estimated losses from U.S. cargo theft surged to astir $725 cardinal successful 2025 — a 60% leap from the anterior twelvemonth — adjacent arsenic the full fig of theft incidents hardly moved.

Metal theft unsocial surged 77%, driven mostly by copper demand. Thieves are present passing implicit lower-value user gadgets similar TVs, alternatively chasing servers, retention hardware and crypto-mining rigs — items that fetch acold much connected resale. The mean worth per cargo theft incidental climbed 36%, to astir $274,000.