Call It I-Way Robbery: Hijacking is the high-tech industry's latest plague

The syndicate known as the South American Group is a loosely knit nationwide criminal syndicate that is believed to have committed hundreds of high-tech thefts over the past 2 years. On June 9, 1995, 6 of the criminals were caught in a sting operation while trying to steal Lexmark computer printers. In January, they all pleaded guilty of theft and received jail terms of 21 to 48 months. So far, those convictions are the leading law enforcement victory against a major new crime wave: high-tech cargo theft. Last year, law-enforcement authorities say, there were more than 500 major heists worldwide. Authorities believe that the vast majority of the heists are being committed by ethnic gangs and that these gangs include large numbers of illegal immigrants. The most active of these criminal organizations is the South American Group. The members of the South American Group are surprisingly adept at eluding the authorities. The Group frequently attacks trucks in transit.