Title 18 — Crimes and Criminal ProcedureRelease 119-73not60

§2322 Chop Shops

Title 18 › Part I— CRIMES › Chapter 113— STOLEN PROPERTY › § 2322

Last updated Apr 5, 2026|Official source

Summary

It makes it a crime to knowingly own, run, keep, or work in a chop shop. A person who does so can be punished with a federal fine, up to 15 years in prison, or both. If the person is convicted again after a prior conviction for the same thing, the maximum fines and prison time are doubled. Chop shop: any building, lot, or place where people take stolen passenger vehicles or parts and hide, break apart, reassemble, or change identifying information (like the vehicle identification number) so they can sell or move them across state lines or to other countries. The Attorney General may also sue to get temporary or permanent court orders to stop the activity.

Full Legal Text

Title 18, §2322

Crimes and Criminal Procedure — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)(1)Any person who knowingly owns, operates, maintains, or controls a chop shop or conducts operations in a chop shop shall be punished by a fine under this title or by imprisonment for not more than 15 years, or both. If a conviction of a person under this paragraph is for a violation committed after the first conviction of such person under this paragraph, the maximum punishment shall be doubled with respect to any fine and imprisonment.

(2)The Attorney General shall, as appropriate, in the case of any person who violates paragraph (1), commence a civil action for permanent or temporary injunction to restrain such violation.

(b)For purposes of this section, the term “chop shop” means any building, lot, facility, or other structure or premise where one or more persons engage in receiving, concealing, destroying, disassembling, dismantling, reassembling, or storing any passenger motor vehicle or passenger motor vehicle part which has been unlawfully obtained in order to alter, counterfeit, deface, destroy, disguise, falsify, forge, obliterate, or remove the identity, including the vehicle identification number or derivative thereof, of such vehicle or vehicle part and to distribute, sell, or dispose of such vehicle or vehicle part in interstate or foreign commerce.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

18 U.S.C. § 2322

Title 18 — Crimes and Criminal Procedure

Last Updated

Apr 5, 2026

Release point: 119-73not60