A team of reporters from the CBC network discovered dozens of stolen cars from the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec in Ghana, West Africa.

According to the police in Canada, these cars are often stolen in five minutes or less, then placed in containers to be shipped by sea from the port of Montreal.

The authorities in Ghana have confiscated some of these cars, while others were found for sale with used car dealers. Many of the cars still carried Canadian license plates.

Even CBC reporter David Common encountered a sport utility vehicle, a Honda CR-V, bearing a Quebec license plate while he was in a car with Ghanaian investigators. The driver of the mentioned vehicle, which was likely stolen and had just arrived by sea, quickly changed direction into another street.

"It's much easier to sell 15 stolen cars on the black market than to sell 15 kilograms of cocaine or 15 illegal firearms," added Haywood.

The police also stated that the port of Montreal has become a center for smuggling stolen cars to Africa and the Middle East.

It's a "national" crisis, said Terry O'Brien, head of the Équité Association, which investigates fraud cases on behalf of insurance companies.

About 70,000 cars were stolen in Canada last year, resulting in record losses for insurance companies exceeding one billion dollars, according to the aforementioned organization.

According to police sources, criminal networks, often based in Montreal, are behind most car thefts in Ontario and Quebec.

Thieves often identify their future loot in the parking lots of shopping centers, attaching an electronic tracking device to the targeted car, then stealing it at night from its owner.

Sport utility vehicles like the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4, as well as Ford F-150 pickup trucks, are among the most popular models with thieves.