Sec. 2. Findings
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/bill/119/hr/2853/ih/section-2·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
It is the sense of Congress that— organized theft groups, involving sophisticated and structured groups of individuals, continue to increase criminal activities carried out by the groups against the retail industry and the supply chain of the Nation. These activities, at unprecedented levels, involve theft and fraud of both physical and digital goods, leading to escalating financial losses and violence in the workplace—all impacting the national economy and security of the United States; retailers face mounting thefts and fraud because of organized retail crime in and around stores, online, and throughout the retail ecosystem.
According to the National Retail Federation, larceny incidents increased by 93 percent in 2023 compared to 2019, with a 90 percent rise in average dollar loss. These thefts are often orchestrated by organized theft groups reselling and redistributing the stolen goods back into the economy of the United States or overseas to gain illicit profit and to finance other criminal activity. More than 84 percent of retailers report that violence and aggression from these criminal activities has become more of a concern since 2022, resulting in injuries and deaths among employees, customers, security officers, and law enforcement personnel; product manufacturers and the supply chain of the Nation are victims of alarming increases in cargo theft across rails, roads, and the various distribution points across the Nation.
CargoNet, a database of reported incidents in the United States, reported a 27 percent increase in cargo theft incidents in 2024 compared to the previous year. During the same period, the average value per theft rose to over $202,000. These thefts range from large-scale physical theft of goods from containers and storage to sophisticated cybercriminal methods that divert shipments to illicit receivers, causing significant financial losses and operational supply chain disruptions; since 2022, more than 30 State laws have been enacted to address organized theft, allow for aggregation of thefts, and adjust penalties and enhancements.
In 2024, California voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional reform to allow aggregation of multiple or repeated thefts. Although larceny and organized retail crime are sometimes prosecuted at State and local levels, States face resource and investigative challenges from groups operating beyond local, State, and regional law enforcement capabilities. More needs to be done to address the cross-jurisdictional, interstate, and international aspects of these crimes; organized theft groups vary in scope and scale, operating across State jurisdictions to avoid or disrupt local, State, and Tribal law enforcement response.
These organized theft groups build hierarchies to easily redistribute stolen goods and illicit profits back into the economy of the United States or overseas with disregard for product and consumer safety. The groups exist and operate at the local, regional, and transnational level, targeting goods that include raw and finished materials, various branded retail products across all consumer categories, operational assets in retail commerce such as reusable transport packaging products, and consumable goods including agriculture, food products, and medicines; these groups are often polycriminal organizations, using profit from the reselling of stolen goods to support crimes involving drugs and weapons trafficking.
The organized theft groups engage in human smuggling and have been known to use migrants to commit crimes to support the organizations. The groups move products and illicit proceeds beyond the borders of the United States, funding nefarious groups and activities and threatening the integrity of the international economy; organized theft groups— threaten the safety and liberty of individuals in the United States when those individuals engage in commerce; impact the ability of the Nation to distribute goods to consumers, undermine consumer confidence in the supply chain, and threaten the integrity of agricultural and consumable goods; erode the national economy by increasing the cost of goods, resulting in higher prices for consumers, reducing tax revenues, and impacting employees, customers, and businesses alike; and impact the national security of the United States through financing transnational criminal activity and providing profit and proceeds supporting larger criminal goals of the criminal organizations; and it has become necessary for Congress to— amend title 18, United States Code, to ensure that law enforcement has the legal tools necessary to combat organized retail crime in the same capacity that law enforcement is able to combat theft and diversion from other portions of the supply chain; and direct the executive branch to create a central coordination center to align Federal, State, local, territorial, and Tribal efforts to combat organized retail crime and organized supply chain crime.