Trucking news and briefs for Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026:
- $7 million drug busts leads to ICE detainers for two truck drivers.
- Largo cargo theft recovered near Chicago.
- Autonomous truck developer picks hardware supplier to scale production.
Two California-licensed drivers arrested in Indiana truck-involved drug bust
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed deportation holds on two California-based truck drivers arrested in Indiana after being caught with $7 million of cocaine in their truck.
On Saturday, Jan. 3, at approximately 1:30 p.m., an Indiana State Police Trooper stopped a blue International tractor-trailer on I-70 at the 41 milemarker eastbound for a routine inspection.
During conversations with the driver, criminal indicators were observed. The trooper, assigned to the ISP Interdiction Team, requested assistance from an ISP Putnamville District canine trooper. The ISP canine unit arrived, a positive alert was indicated and a probable cause search of the tractor and trailer ensued.
During the search, the troopers found the 309 pounds of cocaine in the sleeper berth of the truck. The estimated street value of the cocaine is $7 million dollars. The tractor-trailer was enroute from Joplin, Missouri, to Richmond, Indiana.
The two truck drivers were arrested after the discovery, in the sleeper berth of their truck.Indiana State Police
The two occupants of the truck -- Gurpreet Singh, 25 of Fresno, California, and Jasveer Singh, 30 of Santa Clara -- were taken into custody without incident and transported to the Putnam County Jail. Both are being charged with Dealing Narcotics, a Level 2 Felony. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation holds were placed on each of them by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) due to prior pending removal proceedings.
[Related: Two truck driver brothers charged, arrested in South Carolina's biggest fentanyl bust]
$2 million in stolen cargo recovered in Chicago-area warehouse
Members of the Cook County, Illinois, Sheriff’s Police Organized Retail Crime (ORC) unit recovered more than $2 million in stolen cargo from a warehouse in the Chicago suburb of Oak Forest.
Insurance company investigators contacted the Sheriff’s Police ORC Unit about a stolen trailer with Target products that were taken from a Joliet facility on Dec. 13. The trailer had been tracked by its GPS device to the warehouse.
On Dec. 30, ORC investigators and insurance investigators met the warehouse owner, who said the Target items were not there but gave them consent to look around. In plain view, ORC investigators saw multiple pallets of Dyson products, Wahl hair clippers, and Nike shoes, among other items, that appeared to have been stolen.
Investigators later returned to the warehouse with a search warrant. They learned that the Dyson products in the warehouse had been stolen while being transported from California to Kentucky, and that the hair clippers were stolen in Whiteside County, Illinois. The Nikes’ last known location was in California. They also recovered stolen merchandise from other retailers and manufacturers, including Amazon, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Ninja/Shark, NOCO, Old Navy, TJX, Ulta, Victoria’s Secret, and Walmart.
The Cook County Sheriff’s Office said the investigation remains active and ongoing.
[Related: Cargo theft proliferation ups the ante on truckers' prevention]
Kodiak partners with Bosch to scale autonomous truck tech
Autonomous truck tech developer Kodiak AI said it would partner with Bosch for the manufacture of the autonomous truck developer’s autonomous platform as the company begins to scale commercial vehicle production.
As reported by Fusable Content Director Jeff Crissey in Overdrive’s sister publication CCJ, under the terms of the agreement, Bosch will support the development of a redundant autonomous platform that combines integrated automotive-grade hardware, firmware, and software interfaces for Kodiak’s AI-driven autonomous platform, called "Kodiak Driver."
Bosch will supply Kodiak with a variety of hardware components, including sensors and vehicle actuation components, such as steering technologies.
“By supplying production-grade hardware, we are enabling the next generation of autonomous trucking alongside Kodiak,” said Paul Thomas, president of Bosch in North America and Bosch Mobility Americas. “Kodiak has already deployed trucks with no humans on board in commercial operations," notably in the Texas oil fields, "and this cooperation gives us a valuable opportunity to deepen our understanding of real-world autonomous vehicle requirements and to further enhance our offerings for the broader autonomous mobility ecosystem.”
[Related: Driverless-truck tech: Owner-operators worry over cyberattacks, crashes, competition]
Last year, Kodiak delivered the first batch of its 100-truck autonomous vehicle order to Atlas Energy Solutions, which operates the tractors in fracking operations in Texas’ Permian Basin. Kodiak also currently works with ZF for steering columns and NVIDIA for AI assistance. The Kodiak Driver systems are installed in an upfit program by Roush Industries.
Beyond the industrial application for Atlas Energy Solutions, Burnette said Kodiak continues its highway-based program running routes between Dallas and Atlanta, Houston and Oklahoma City. Trucks on those routes still operate with a safety observer onboard, but Burnette said the company plans to operate without a safety observer as early as the second half of 2026.
Read more of Crissey’s report here in CCJ.
[Related: Will owner-operators have to compete with truly 'driverless' fleets?]
