Lt. William Jackson, Operations Commander, conducts
a briefing for all the participants of Operation Lost Fleet

On January 22-26, members of a special task force conducted Operation Lost Fleet in Duval County. The purpose of the operation was to detect, investigate, and arrest individuals responsible for high dollar commercial vehicle thefts of trucks, tractors, trailers, dump trucks, and other cargo stolen from parking areas and used by commercial vehicle drivers.

The special task force, entitled The Florida Commercial Vehicle & Cargo Theft Task Force, was comprised of officers from the Florida Highway Patrol, Florida Department of Transportation Motor Carrier Compliance, Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office, Gadsden County Sheriff’s Office, CSX railroad Police Department, Miami-Dade Police Department, and the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

Since January 2008, forty-eight commercial tractor/trailer thefts have been reported in Duval County with a value of $1,527,501, along with cargo valued at $4,055,500. The thieves operating in the Jacksonville area targeted both attended and unattended vehicles. Statewide, since January 2008, a total of 155 commercial dump trucks have been reported stolen, with a value of $13,100,000.

The task force used marked and unmarked vehicles as well as undercover and decoy vehicles to conduct 618 traffic stops during Operation Lost Fleet with the following results:

Traffic Citations	417
Faulty Equipment Notices	108
Written Warnings	96
DUI Arrest	1
Drug Arrests	13 (59.4g Marijuana, 8g Hydrocodone)
Other Arrests	10
Seized Handguns	2
Commercial Vehicles Removed From Service	6
Commercial Motor Vehicle Fines	$3695.00