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To motivate people to act green, the government of Germany launched a program that allowed people to give away their old vehicles with a high level of pollution in exchange for cash. The government's program involves awarding cash for the cars that have been clunked, but it seems that one tiny detail was not taken into consideration. The German police started an investigation and discovered that the cars that supposed to be clunked are sold to countries in Africa and those located in Eastern Europe.

It was discovered that about 50,000 vehicles were brought to other countries after their owners in Germany threw them out. The information comes from Ronald Schulze, a specialist with the Association of Criminal Investigators, which represents a group of police sleuths. People who were found to do the dirty job said they found a good opportunity to make money. According to Schulze, there was an organized network that stole old cars in Germany. He mentioned that only a group of highly organized men with necessary logistics can perform such a task. After transferring the old vehicles to other countries, the thieves reduced the level of pollution in Germany while raising it somewhere else, which is not what the government had in mind. At the same time, according to some specialists, some of the old cars come back to Germany. "This program was about selling cars. We left open the question of what happens to the old ones," said Jurgen Resch, the director of German Environmental Help, an advocacy group.

The program started in January 2009 with the government aiming to spend around $2 billion, which means about $3,500 for every old vehicle given away. It supposed to end in September, but due to a continuously increasing demand the government decided to extend its program till December 31 and increase the budget allocated for the program up to $7 billion. Similar programs were introduced in other European countries, including Austria, France and Spain. Just like in Germany their programs had the goal of destroying old vehicles as long as people considered purchasing cars with a decreased level of pollution. The same program was launched in the United States as well. It continued gaining popularity, which is why the Congress decided to extend the program. However, unlike their American counterparts, the German government ignored several safeguards. For example in the United States car dealers are ordered to destroy engines from old cars - and namely they inject sodium silicate instead of oil. The German car dealers only have to leave the old vehicle at junkyards.

At the same time the global economic crisis had a great impact on those who operate the crushing machines. The prices per metric ton of crashed vehicles went down from $600 in 2008 to $14 today. "Organized crime has offered a lot of money, and someone who already has his back to the wall naturally says, 'Okay, before I close my doors I'd rather give this a try,' " explained Gottfried Holl, the president of the Association of German Auto Scrap Yards. The government can only find car dealers guilty of misdemeanor tax evasion in case they do not show their reports on profits. At the same time the trade of used-cars between Western Europe and developing countries for many years represented a legal commercial activity.

A high demand for used German vehicles has been registered in African countries, where these represent the main mean of transport for a lot of people that lack personal transportation, and countries in Eastern Europe, where the purchasing power of the population is rather low, in fact much lower compared to the purchasing power in the Western countries. Since the cash-for-clunkers program started functioning, the German custom officials started noticing that a lot of used cars were shipped through the country's northern ports of Hamburg and Bremerhaven. Scrap dealers from Germany were found to approach purchasers from African countries in regard to selling vehicles that are traded under the country's repayment program.