Michigan sits at one of the most important crossroads in North American commerce. The Ambassador Bridge alone handles roughly $390 million in trade per day, while our ports, highways, rail lines and retail corridors move millions of products to consumers across the Midwest. That network is the backbone of our economy. And increasingly, organized criminal enterprises are exploiting it at every stage, from warehouses and cargo yards to store shelves and online marketplaces.
Sophisticated criminal enterprises are using fraudulent returns, gift card scams, cargo diversion schemes and sophisticated online resale networks to steal large quantities of merchandise and rapidly convert it into cash. Michigan retailers are feeling the effects directly.
Organized retail crime costs businesses billions annually through stolen merchandise and supply chain disruptions. Cargo theft has become a growing facet of the larger organized retail crime ecosystem.
Cargo theft incidents in the U.S. hit a record high in 2024. By 2025, total losses approached $725 million— a 60% jump in just one year. Rail-related cargo theft alone rose roughly 50% in 2025 over the year before, with more than 75,000 incidents reported nationally. For a state like Michigan, sitting at the center of a major freight corridor, this is a direct and growing risk to our economy and supply chain.
The economic consequences hit close to home. Michigan retailers lost an estimated $2.3 billion in revenue to theft in a single year, with many losses occurring long before products ever reach store shelves. Businesses face higher insurance costs, supply disruptions and tighter margins — pressures that can ultimately show up in higher prices for consumers.
Retail theft and fraud also drain an estimated $288 million annually from state sales tax revenue, funding that would otherwise support schools, infrastructure, and public services.
Michigan has responded with urgency. The attorney general’s FORCE team has charged 41 defendants in 13 cases tied to nearly $13 million in losses, while recovering more than $8 million in stolen goods and seizing $2 million in cash. That record is proof of what coordinated, public-private enforcement can accomplish. But it also reveals the limit of any state-level response.
These criminal networks do not stop at state lines. They move across Michigan into Indiana, Ohio and beyond, exploiting gaps between jurisdictions and using online marketplaces and out-of-state accounts to scale their operations. State and local efforts are essential, but they cannot match that reach. That is where federal coordination is essential.
The Combating Organized Retail Crime Act (CORCA) would establish a national coordination center within the Department of Homeland Security, bringing together federal, state and local law enforcement with retail industry experts to share intelligence and coordinate investigations in real time. It would also strengthen tools to track financial crimes like gift card fraud and allow prosecutors to aggregate thefts over time — closing a loophole that lets repeat offenders avoid serious charges by keeping individual thefts below felony thresholds.
This is a practical, bipartisan response to a national problem. Michigan retailers, from family-owned shops to major regional employers, have already invested heavily in security technology and industry partnerships, and the Michigan Retailers Association has made great strides advancing state-level organized retail crime legislation since 2012.
What’s missing is a federal framework that can actually match the reach and sophistication of the criminal networks they’re up against.
Michigan is one of America’s most important commercial hubs. We move goods that stock shelves, build cars and fuel the Midwest economy. That position in the freight network is an asset — but only if it’s protected. Congress should pass CORCA now, before the damage to our supply chains becomes permanent and the costs to Michigan families grow any higher.
William Hallan is president and CEO of the Michigan Retailers Association.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Retail crime costs Michigan billions. CORCA could help | Opinion
Reporting by William Hallan, For the Detroit News / The Holland Sentinel
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