Mexican motorcycle gang steals vehicles by hacking into Chrysler…

The motorcycle gang from Tijuana obviously had other things in mind besides enjoying motorcycling: Since the beginning of 2014 they stole more than 150 vehicles, mostly Wrangler Jeep and certain motorcycle models like Honda CBR, Kawasaki Ninja and Yamaha YZF-R1. The US authorities were amazed at how the nine-man group from the Hooligans Motorcycle Club pulled it off.

First small groups scouted the Jeep Wrangler models in the vicinity of San Diego. Then a member copied the respective vehicle numbers – for Jeeps it’s simply printed on the dashboard. This was then passed on to the biker computer nerd. He had probably previously stolen the access credentials for the official Jeep vehicle database from a dealer in Mexican Cabo San Lucas – how exactly, the authorities do not yet know. This enabled him, however, to get the necessary information for the reproduction of the respective vehicle keys. Then the micro-chip in the duplicated key was programmed to match the computer system in the respective Jeep model. This required two access codes.

Then as a team they approached the vehicle, accessed it with the duplicate key, and deactivated specific areas of the vehicle alarm system, such as horn and flash lights. Using a special handset and another code, the cloned key was then programmed and further security functions in the vehicles alarm system were deactivated. This made it possible to start the vehicle without raising any suspicions and to bring it across the border to Mexico by means of a transporter truck. In total, over 150 vehicles were then stripped into individual parts and sold and the gang was able to make an estimated revenue of approximately 4,5 million US dollars.

For quite some time, the police puzzled over these vehicle thefts. Mid 2014 however, detectives discovered the gangs activities, monitored them in the process, and with the help of the Chrysler company the further investigations led to the arrest warrant against some gang members in September 2016.

https://regmedia.co.uk, Indictment (PDF)
http://www.theregister.co.uk: Sons of IoT: Bikers hack Jeeps in auto theft spree