BALTIMORE, MD—A Baltimore County woman has been sentenced to federal prison for her role in a scheme to steal luxury cars from New York and New Jersey and ship them to West Africa, authorities announced this week.

Maimouna Bagayoko, 54, of Owings Mill, was sentenced to 42 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, and $60,569.87 restitution for wire fraud and receipt of stolen motor vehicles.

According to her plea agreement, Bagayoko worked with others in 2021 to bring stolen luxury vehicles into Maryland. The vehicles, valued at over $650,000, were mostly stolen from the homes of victims in New Jersey and New York.

Once in Maryland, the vehicles were loaded onto large cargo shipping containers and taken to the Port of Baltimore, according to the plea agreement.

Bagayoko then used fraudulent documentation and paperwork to conceal the containers’ contents. She emailed and texted the fake documents to the shipping company. The shipping containers headed for West Africa.

United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron commended Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Baltimore City Police and Baltimore County Police for their work in the investigation.

This article was written with the assistance of AI and reviewed by a human editor.

Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels