The Queensland Police Service has confirmed seven arrests and 380 fees have been laid following a spate of Toyota thefts throughout Brisbane late final yr, involving an alleged crime syndicate that shipped automobiles abroad.
Police allege the syndicate focused Toyota LandCruiser and Toyota Prado automobiles, stealing round 60 automobiles value roughly $8 million on Brisbane’s southside between October 20 and December 1, 2025.
In line with authorities, the stolen automobiles had been accessed by way of the CAN bus port, permitting thieves to take management of the automobiles and disable Toyota’s satellite tv for pc monitoring gadget.
The Courier Mail reported the automobiles had been then shipped abroad to locations together with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with the seven males from a wide range of backgrounds allegedly forming a part of a world crime community.
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“They had been well-disciplined, refined and definitely motivated,” Queensland Police Detective Inspector Paul Dalton advised The Courier Mail.
One of many alleged perpetrators confronted a Brisbane court docket final month and was denied bail by the Justice of the Peace because of the refined nature of the operation.
The accused operated a wrecking yard within the Brisbane suburb of Rocklea, the place a number of the stolen automobiles had been allegedly stowed.
On December 2, 2025, Queensland police’s POLAIR unit tracked a stolen Toyota to the yard, the place two delivery containers containing LandCruisers and stolen components had been found.
“There’d been no offences of this nature for the reason that first arrests had been made on December 2, and the neighborhood can relaxation assured that this syndicate not poses an ongoing risk,” Detective Inspector Dalton stated.
Of the 60 stolen automobiles, solely 15 have been recovered, together with 9 present in Port Melbourne, Victoria, following an analogous spate of Toyota thefts earlier in 2025, which has prompted police to analyze potential hyperlinks between the 2 operations.
“We’re conscious that the one different jurisdiction the place such a offending has occurred is Victoria earlier within the yr, the place I feel 150-plus motor automobiles had been stolen,” added Detective Inspector Dalton.
“As soon as once more, any connection previous to them assembly in Brisbane continues to be a part of our investigation, and we’re working with our worldwide and nationwide counterparts to determine that.”
Automobile theft in Victoria elevated by 40 per cent within the 12 months to June 2025, when it reached its highest degree in additional than twenty years.
The difficulty has been raised by CarExpert with Toyota, which says it’s engaged on a repair to make stealing the favored fashions harder.
The Prado was Toyota Australia’s third-best promoting mannequin in 2025 when it discovered 26,106 new houses, inserting it behind the Ford Ranger, Toyota’s personal RAV4 and HiLux, the Isuzu D-Max, and the Ford Everest.
