GHOST TAGS: Inside NYC’s Black Market for Temporary License Plates
On Monday, we published Part I of our seven-month investigation into the black market for temporary license plates, which involves a vast network of used car dealers who exploit limited oversight to fraudulently issue real temporary tags that many drivers use to commit crimes.
12:02 AM EDT on April 3, 2023
Jesse Coburn is a reporter at ProPublica after a stint as Streetsblog's investigative reporter, where his reporting received a Polk Award, a Sigma Award, and awards from the Silurians Press Club and the Overseas Press Club Foundation. Previously he was a reporter at Newsday and an editor at ARCH+.
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