A GROWING LAW-ENFORCEMENT PROBLEM that can impact both fire and EMS units is the phenomenon of what are termed “cloned vehicles.”

Usually trucks, these are vehicles that are cosmetically decorated to look like genuine company-owned trucks so that they can be used for smuggling activities.  More often than not, the drivers will be wearing counterfeit, or stolen, uniforms of the company being imitated.

The expense and effort to acquire and prepare these trucks indicates that they are involved in major criminal activity, and as such, you can expect them to be occupied by dangerous and perhaps violent people.  If they are involved in a crash or fire, they might not be cooperative, especially if you start looking through places where they don’t want you.  Ahhhh…… just one more thing that you have to watch for while you’re out there.

The clones in these photos were taken in different states.  As you can imagine, there are clones in your county, too.  This photo collection, along with the one we used in the Morning Lineup today, were assembled and distributed by the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement.

This DirectTV clone was discovered when the officer became suspicious about a CD player installed in the dashboard. Inspection led to finding hollowed-out cable spools that contained $1.07 million in cash.

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An alert Border Patrol agent spotted this clone because he recognized the ID number on the side as being wrong. The “H” numbers are used only on Jeep vehicles while this type of van has “C” numbers. He found 31 illegals being smuggled into the country in the back.

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This cloned Texas D.O.T. truck was spotted because it had heavily-smoked window glass that is not used on the genuine highway trucks. The back seat area, truck bed and tool box were all filled with bales of marijuana.

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This work van designed to look like a contract cable tv installer’s truck was carrying nearly 800 lbs. of cocaine. What directed the police officer to investigate was the “how’s my driving?” telephone number that had “advise” spelled wrong. They later found that dialing that number connected you with one of those adult chat lines that charges 99 cents-per-minute when you call.

Again, we will repeat:  These things can show up anywhere.  Be careful.

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