Organized criminal gangs are leading to increase car thefts in the United Kingdom, the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), a reservoir for defense and security, said in a report published on Thursday, with the thefts rising by 75% in the last decade to around 130,000 vehicles.

The cars stolen are not only high-quality vehicles such as Range Rover or Rolls-Royce, as well as models such as Ford Fiesta or Focus and Volkswagen Golf, according to figures.

“Networks and tested smuggling routes of organized crime groups steal, load and send out of the United Kingdom in a day,” Rusi said in its analysis, noting that the theft of vehicles is no longer a low -level, opportunistic crime, but rather a low -level and low -level crime, International dimensions.

Criminals have been better organized, so they are able to supply relatively easily purchases where the vehicles are expensive or in lack and where the demand is high for spare parts or whole vehicles, CNBC notes.

In which purchases are being sent

Some basic export markets for high -value stolen cars include the United Arab Emirates, Agriculture, Cyprus and the Congo People’s Republic.

The overall increases in spare parts and vehicles and the lack of supply in these markets “push people to look for the cheapest alternative, which in many cases may come from the illegal market and have initially been stolen,” said Elijah Gladz, a ruster researcher.

Huge costs for the economy

In addition to the personal cost of stolen cars for owners, vehicle thefts have a significant impact on the wider economy.

“Vehicle thefts are now costing the United Kingdom’s economy of about 1.77 billion pounds per year (2.07 billion euros) and have led to an 82% increase in car premium prices from 2021”, with the cost exacerbated by increasing repair costs, vehicles and prices, Rusi writers, Mark Williams and Alastair Greig.