WORLD CARGO CRIME COSTS "BETWEEN 30 AND 50 BILLION DOLLARS" A YEAR

    The cost of cargo crime worldwide has increased to $30 billion to $50 billion a year, a senior insurance executive said.
    Mike Hawkins of Signum Services, the Through Transport Club’s claims investigation branch, said that organized cargo crime has escalated over the last few years.
    Hawkins told a loss prevention conference of the TT Club in Antwerp that large-scale thefts are "almost invariably the work of criminal organizations which usually plan their crimes based on information supplied by individuals working ‘on the inside.’"
    Generally, buyers for stolen cargo are arranged prior to the actual thefts, he added.
    Case histories indicate that the most likely places where cargo
consignments are stolen are at a port or terminal, followed by at a freight depot and then during road transportation – generally when parked overnight.