Guilty Plea for Tennessee Truck Driver Involved in Cargo Theft

Tennessee truck driver has pleaded guilty in Missouri to taking part in a multi-state cargo theft ring.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says 49-year-old Michael Lee Sherley, of Memphis, pleaded guilty Wednesday to theft of an interstate shipment.

The charge stemmed from the May 2013 theft of a trailer containing $73,000 worth of canned corn from a truck stop in the south-central Missouri town of West Plains.

Sherley worked for Memphis-based Nu World Trucking for about a year.

Prosecutors said members of the ring used Nu World’s resources to drive tractors without trailers attached through truck stops near interstate highways, looking for unattached trailers. They hooked the trailers up and drove to other states to sell the cargo.

The corn stolen by Sherley was bound for an Arkansas food bank.