Indian driver arrested after $2.8 million tungsten oxide theft in US

American police stopped a 31‑year‑old Indian truck driver on Interstate 70 near Greenfield, Indiana, after learning his trailer was carrying a stolen load of tungsten‑oxide powder. The cargo, about 18 tons and valued at $2.857 million, had been taken two days earlier from Global Tungsten & Powders in Pennsylvania and was intended for Mitsubishi Materials in Japan.

The driver, Deepak Kumar, a California resident, allegedly used falsified employment documents to obtain a commercial driver’s license and to take control of the shipment. The entire load was recovered and secured following the arrest. Prosecutors have filed charges of theft of movable property and illegal use of communications equipment. Some charges filed in Indiana were dismissed on July 1, while the case proceeds under a Pennsylvania warrant. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has also indicated that Kumar may have been in the country illegally and has a history of fraud and identity theft, though those claims await independent verification.