As data-center construction accelerated across the United States, truckloads of servers, fiber-optic cable, computer chips, copper wire and mining equipment began moving in unusually concentrated volumes. Law-enforcement officials and industry experts say that made highway freight a prime target for organized groups hunting large, mobile paydays.¹

Since June, thieves have made off with more than $100 million in data-center freight, according to investigators and industry figures cited by NBC News. Their playbook starts online: compromised freight-broker accounts are used to post fake loads, lure trucking companies and distribute malicious links that seize control of legitimate accounts. The criminals can then bid on real shipments, dispatch an unwitting driver or place an accomplice behind the wheel with forged identification.²

The thefts have not always remained digital. In one California-to-Georgia case, a trailer carrying server equipment valued at $13 million disappeared after an unmarked sedan struck the vehicle of off-duty police escorts. A second shipment, carrying server-rack components worth roughly $10 million, was lost after an SUV hit its escort vehicle; its location tracking was apparently spoofed. Private investigator Gerardo Pachuca said of the first collision: “The accident was not an accident. The bad guys wanted that load, so they intentionally took out the escorts.”²

Investigators describe the violence as isolated, but the wider pattern is growing: nearly two dozen incidents have been recorded since 2025 across states including California, Texas and Utah. Stolen equipment can be stripped for parts and routed through gray markets, sometimes to buyers arranged before a theft takes place.²

For security firms, the central weakness is less exotic than the crimes themselves. Scott Cornell of TAPA Americas argues that rings are “playing chess in the supply chain,” but says the system can be hardened if carriers slow down and vet drivers properly. States have formed cargo-theft task forces, lawmakers are discussing a stronger federal response, and escort companies say they are now protecting hundreds of data-center-related loads each month.²