European cross‑border vehicle fraud

In mid‑July 2026, Bulgarian border police carried out a coordinated raid that broke up an organised rent‑a‑car scheme responsible for roughly €900,000 in losses. The operation targeted “mules” who rented high‑value cars in Germany, drove them across the Romanian border and abandoned them in Bulgaria, leading to the seizure of fifteen vehicles and the detention of ten suspects.

Two weeks later, Romanian authorities in Caraș‑Severin County intercepted a motorhome valued at about €70,000 that had been illicitly rented in Spain with a falsified identity. The vehicle, fitted with counterfeit licence plates, was recovered in the town of Reșița and handed over to Spanish officials for return. Both incidents illustrate a pattern of cross‑border vehicle‑related fraud in Europe, with law‑enforcement agencies in different states disrupting parallel schemes that exploit false documentation and trans‑national movement of stolen or misappropriated vehicles.