| id | cleanReleaseDate | troopName | title |
| 1829 | 2008-02-22 | Troop B | State Police Arrest a Harvey Man in a Stolen Vehicle Operation |
| NEWS RELEASE LOUISIANA STATE POLICE COURTESY LOYALTY SERVICE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATE: February 22nd, 2008 State Police Arrest a Harvey Man in a Stolen Vehicle Operation In July of 2007, Louisiana State Troopers from the Insurance Fraud/Auto Theft Unit received information that a Jefferson Parish man was in possession of a cloned vehicle. On August 1st, 2007 troopers from the State Police Insurance Fraud/Auto Theft unit located the vehicle (2006 Ford F350 pick-up) at residence on the west-bank of Jefferson Parish, LA. A secondary inspection of the vehicle revealed that the vehicle had a cloned vehicle identification number (VIN) and that the true VIN belonged to a vehicle (2006 Ford F350) registered in the State of Washington. Further investigation proved that the actual vehicle (2006 Ford F350) had been reported stolen by the Sunrise Police Department in Florida. It was learned through the investigation that the vehicle had been purchased from Mr. Faustino Taveras-Abreu. In September of 2007 troopers from the Insurance Fraud/Auto Theft unit received information from the Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles in reference to a possible cloned vehicle (2003 Ford Explorer) registered to Mr. Faustino Taveras-Abreu. In November the troopers located the vehicle at a dealership in the New Orleans Metropolitan area, after it had been traded in. The troopers again conducted a secondary inspection of the vehicle which revealed that the vehicle had a cloned VIN and that the true VIN belonged to vehicle (2003 Ford Explorer) registered in the State of Washington. Further investigation revealed that the actual vehicle (2005 Ford Explorer) had been reported stolen by the Miami Dade Police Department in Florida. In both cases, Mr. Taveras-Abreu submitted forged documents to the Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles to register the cloned vehicles. In addition he received $37500.00 as a result of selling the two cloned vehicles. On Thursday, February 21, 2008, State Police located Mr. Taveras-Abreu (W/M, 36 yrs) of Harvey, LA and arrested him on 2 counts of Felony Theft by Fraud and 2 counts of Filing False Public Records. He was arrested without incident and booked at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center. Definition of cloned vehicle: A cloned vehicle is a vehicle in which the suspect creates another VIN plate from a similar vehicle (Usually the same make and model) in the United States and places the cloned VIN onto a stolen vehicle with the same description removing the stolen vehicles VIN. The suspect then duplicates all the paperwork from the cloned VIN and registers the vehicle in another state.
FOR MORE INFO CONTACT SENIOR TROOPER JOSEPH PIGLIA BY PAGER AT 504-437-6997 OR BY BLACKBERRY or EMAIL AT Joseph.Piglia@dps.la.gov
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