A South Florida business owner is facing charges after multiple stolen cars and engines were discovered in shipping containers at PortMiami that were bound for the United Arab Emirates, authorities said.
Roohullah Abdul-Rauof, 47, was arrested Tuesday on eight counts of dealing in stolen property, eight counts of grand theft of a vehicle, four counts of grand theft, four counts of fraudulently obtaining a vehicle title or registration, 274 counts of transferring a vehicle title with no purchaser name, 20 counts of selling or transporting a vehicle without a title or with a false title, and one count of owning, operating or aiding and abetting a chop shop, records showed.
According to an arrest report, on September 22, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the port found a 2024 Chevrolet Tahoe, a 2016 Hyundai Sonata and a 2017 Hyundai Sonata that had all been stolen in Miami-Dade in a shipping container that was being sent to the United Arab Emirates.
The shipping container was seized and determined to belong to Abdul-Rauof and his company, Shine Motors, in Opa-locka, the report said.
Officers also found four unmanifested engines that were linked to vehicles stolen in Miami-Dade and Plantation, the report said.
On Oct. 7, CBP officers found a 2025 Chevrolet Tahoe that had been reported stolen by the Broward Sheriff’s Office in a shipping container that was heading to the United Arab Emirates.
The shipping container was also seized from Abdul-Rauof and his business, the report said.
On Oct. 15, Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office investigators went to Shine Motors for an inspection and found several engines from vehicles that had been reported stolen in Miami-Dade and Broward, along with doors from vehicles that had been reported stolen, the report said.
According to the report, the total estimated value of the recovered property was over $214,000.
Abdul-Rauof also had 274 State of Florida certificates of title that weren’t properly transferred to the name of the business, the report said.
Abdul-Rauof was booked into jail. He appeared in bond court Wednesday where his attorney, Zeljka Bozanic, asked the judge for a reasonable bond, arguing that Abdul-Rauof ships the vehicles for customers but doesn’t own them, and has lived in the United States since 2016 and hasn’t previously been arrested.
Prosecutors argued Abdul-Rauof, who lives in Doral but is a citizen of Afghanistan, was a flight risk. The judge set his bond at $145,500 and ordered him to surrender his passport.
