FreightWaves is launching a true-crime podcast, Long-Haul Crime Log, on FreightCasts that focuses on the dark side of the world of freight as journalists Clarissa Hawes, Nate Tabak and Noi Mahoney tackle white-collar crime, murders, cyberattacks and cross-border smuggling cases they’ve covered over the years in trucking and the supply chain.
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You can find future episodes of Long-Haul Crime Log here or by searching for FreightCasts on your preferred podcast provider. Here are the stories covered in the first episode:
1. The unspeakable crimes and execution of trucker Alfred Bourgeois.
On May 28, 2002, a 2-year-old girl, JG, headed out over the road with her dad, Alfred Bourgeois, a long-haul trucker from LaPlace, Louisiana. A month later, JG would be dead, tortured and murdered by her father in the cab of his tractor-trailer. Hawes takes a look at the events that led up to JG’s murder and why Bourgeois was executed in December after spending 17 years on death row.
Read more:
Feds execute former Louisiana trucker Friday
Former long-haul trucker slated to be executed sometime Friday
2. Is that meth in your load of avocados? Behind the drug busts at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Mahoney talks about recent attempts to smuggle narcotics across the U.S.-Mexico border using tractor-trailers. More than $400 million in drugs was seized from tractor-trailers attempting to cross into the United States last year.
Read more:
Five biggest Mexico border drug busts of 2020
Mexican police find $62M in drugs in abandoned truck near border
3. Ransomware gangs keep shaking down trucking and logistics companies.
Tabak talks about the spate of ransomware attacks on trucking and logistics companies and how hacker gangs are using leveraging stolen data to extort their victims. Recent ransomware attack include Forward Air Corp. and Cardinal Logistics.
Read more:
Hackers leak data from trucking firm Cardinal Logistics
5 defining cyberattacks on trucking and logistics