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SUPPLY CHAININTELLIGENCE CENTER

Global Intelligence Note12 October 2018

The SensiGuard ™ Supply Chain Intelligence Center (SCIC)

presents a summary of major incidents and news articles

relating to cargo theft and intelligence for the week ending

12 October 2018.

EMEA

United Kingdom ...................................................................... 1

Spain ....................................................................................... 1

Italy ......................................................................................... 2

Ghana ..................................................................................... 2

France ..................................................................................... 2

Germany ................................................................................. 3

Kenya ...................................................................................... 3

South Africa............................................................................. 3

Nigeria ..................................................................................... 3

Europe/China .......................................................................... 3

APAC

Malaysia .................................................................................. 4

Japan ...................................................................................... 4

Bangladesh ............................................................................. 4

China/Uzbekistan .................................................................... 4

India ........................................................................................ 4

North & South America

Brazil ....................................................................................... 5

Mexico .................................................................................... 5

U.S. & Canada ........................................................................ 5

EMEA

United Kingdom10 October 2018: Increasing numbers of U.K.

shippers are switching their container import

gateway from the congestion of Southampton

and Felixstowe to Liverpool. According to freight

forwarders and importers, the Mersey port’s

enlarged terminal capacity (since its deep-water Liverpool2

terminal opened in late 2016) has meant an absence of

demurrage and detention charges, as well as faster truck

turnaround times and available haulage. These factors have

been thrown into sharp focus since the congestion issues began

at Felixstowe in the summer and later spread to Southampton.

Read more: The Loadstar (U.K.)

Spain9 October 2018: A driver parked for his overnight

break in the industrial area Zona Franca – Carrer

E, close to the port of Barcelona. The driver

was woken as he had heard noise; he went to

investigate and saw some men fleeing the scene in

an SUV. They had broken the seal on his trailer and opened the

rear doors. Two pallets of cargo had been taken.

Source: K&N Ring Alert

sensitech.com SCIC Global Intelligence Note 12 October 2018 2

Italy11 October 2018: A truck transporting

tobacco on the SS96 near Grumo Appula,

Bari (Apulia) was attacked by a gang of

at least five armed and masked men onboard a car. The

driver of the truck is believed to have been kidnapped. Police

investigations are ongoing.

Read more: Borderline 24 (Italy)

10 October 2018: Six companies in the industrial

area of Monsano (Marche) were targeted by a

gang of thieves. They stole a variety of products

such as furniture, bicycles (e-bikes), food, and

Electronics before the alarm in a food company was

triggered. It is believed that over €100,000 worth of products

were taken overall.

Read more: Vivere Jesi (Italy)

1 October 2018: Seventy tons of stolen brass,

equal to a value of €350,000, was stolen by

two gangs who worked together to raid thirteen

warehouses and attempted to do so in three

other companies. These gangs have now been dismantled by

the Carabinieri of Verbania along with colleagues from other

provinces. Thirteen people have been arrested.

Read more: Info Vercelli 24 (Italy)

Ghana7 October 2018: The Ghana Revenue Authority

(GRA) has lost an accumulated revenue of GH¢4.5

billion over the past five years as a result of

infractions by traders, importers and governmental

agencies, the Head of Tax Policy Unit at the Ministry of Finance,

Mr Daniel Nuer, has said.

Read more: GhanaWeb.com

France5 October 2018: With the increase in the

price of cigarettes, criminals are increasingly

attacking delivery trucks. Friday morning, four

hooded individuals targeted a truck as it left the depot in Mions.

The gang forced the truck drivers to flee before they took control

of the truck and escaped. The truck was later found abandoned,

empty, in the Saint-Laurent-de-Mure area.

Read more: Le Progrès (France)

5 October 2018: Pallets of drinks

were stolen from a warehouse with the

involvement of three employees and

a shopkeeper. They were arrested on

Wednesday. On 31 August, a load of ten

pallets of drinks left a warehouse in La Courneuve. The delivery

was unloaded in front of a grocery store in the Mille-Mille district

in Aulnay-sous-Bois. To disguise the operation, the driver had

explained to his boss that he had been the victim of an armed

robbery. An investigation entrusted to the La Courneuve police

station revealed flaws in the employee’s story. CCTV cameras

in the city of Aulnay-sous-Bois showed the team and the

shopkeeper in front of the grocery store unloading the goods

without threat. The initial loss amounted to €10,000.

Read more: Le Parisien (France)

4 October 2018: An employee who claimed

he had his company’s fuel card stolen has

been arrested. A temporary employee,

assisted by four accomplices, stole 9,500

liters of diesel in three months from two

transport companies near Toulouse (Haute-Garonne). The

five men suspected of this scam were arrested and placed in

custody. According to the regional newspaper La Dépêche,

the 57-year-old temporary driver declared on the last day of his

contract that the fuel card for his truck had been stolen or lost.

He actually kept these cards for three months between February

and April. The fuel thus stolen was used to refuel the personal

vehicles of the driver and four of his associates. Sometimes

the fuel was sold at a discounted price to other users. The two

transport companies filed a complaint when they found the theft

of a very large amount of diesel, not less than 9 500 liters, for an

estimated damage of €11,500.

Read more: Le Parisien (France)

sensitech.com SCIC Global Intelligence Note 12 October 2018 3

Germany10 October 2018: At night, thieves cut the

trailer curtains of trucks on highway parking

lots and steal the cargo. The damage caused

by the curtain slasher in this way is nationwide

in the billions. So far this year in Saxony-Anhalt there have been

around 580 cases of theft by curtain slashers on parking areas

with the value being around €3,500,000, according to the State

Criminal Police Office. In 2017, in total there were 613 incidents

recorded with a value of €3,050,000 and 2016 there were 609

incidents with a value of €1,150,000.

Read more: Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (Germany)

9 October 2018: Thieves stole a trailer which

contained 5700 bottles of herbal liqueur worth

around €50,000. The trailer was parked in the port

district of Veltenhof in Braunschweig.

Read more: Hannoversche Allgemeine (Germany)

8 October 2018: Boxes of cosmetics worth

several thousand euros were taken from

the trailer of a truck parked at Rastanlage

Heiligenroth on the A3. Criminals slashed the trailers curtain and

stole the cargo.

Read more: Presse Portal (Germany)

Kenya10 October 2018: Detectives in Makindu

have arrested a driver and impounded a truck

believed to have been hijacked along the Nairobi-

Mombasa highway. The driver was caught

offloading assorted office equipment and supplies

at Kibarani shopping centre in Makindu on Wednesday morning.

Makueni Police Commander said that the cargo that included

air fresheners, water dispensers, refrigerators and electronic

machines are suspected to have been stolen. He said a gang

hijacked the truck and assaulted the driver, who was abandoned

in a bush. He said the driver of the truck that was headed to

Nairobi is undergoing treatment at Voi Hospital. The police boss

said they received intelligence reports on the truck and pounced

on the suspect.

Read more: The Star (Kenya)

South Africa11 October 2018: Rolls of wire fence worth

R1.6m were stolen from Edenvale, and were

only discovered when the truck arrived in

Boksburg with the cargo missing. According to

Chief Superintendent, EMPD spokesperson, on the night of 26

September, a truck with two trailers pretending to be authentic

transporters of the fence cargo to Zambia took delivery of the

cargo from a company in Edenvale. “It was subsequently found

that the delivery was taken under false pretenses,” said the

spokesperson. “Investigations were initiated which on Tuesday,

October 9 resulted in the recovery of the truck and the trailers

used in the theft.”

Read more: Boksburg Advertiser (South Africa)

Nigeria9 October 2018: Five suspected members of

a trans-border robbery gang were arrested by

the Lagos State Police Command as they were

fleeing Ogun state The gun-wielding gang of nine

stormed a haulage company’s warehouse, where

they hacked one of the private guards with machetes before

tying his legs and hands. While two of them posed as guards

at the gate to wade off intruders, others loaded a truck with

goods from the warehouse and zoomed off, abandoning the

dying gate-man in the pool of his blood. Operatives of the Rapid

Response Squad stopped the vehicle at Meiran junction and

arrested the five suspects.

Read more: Vanguard (Nigeria)

Europe/China9 October 2018: All instances of theft on the

New Silk Road take place in Europe. A second

bridge between Malaszewicze-Brest should

speed up traffic, and customs clearing could

be done before the train hits the track to smoothen border

procedures. These were the opinions and suggestions of

logistics providers/specialists at the New Silk Road Conference

that took place on 27 September in the Netherlands.

Read more: RailFreight.com

sensitech.com SCIC Global Intelligence Note 12 October 2018 4

APAC

Malaysia12 October 2018: The Royal Malaysian

Police (PDRM) crashed the biggest cigarette

smuggling syndicate in the East Coast

of Johor with the arrest of twenty-three

individuals involving a seizure of RM9 million in

three separate raids in the state. Bukit Aman’s Internal Security

and Public Safety Department director said the operations

involved Bukit Aman’s Criminal Investigation Department (JSJ)

in two individual houses and factories in the state. “A total of

19 cars including luxury cars, five 3 ton trucks, 1,332 cigarette

boxes and RM 9,645 cash were seized in a series of raids,” he

told a press conference at Mersing District Police Headquarters

(IPD).

Read more: Bharian Online (Malaysia)

Japan12 October 2018: Yamato Holdings Co.

has reached a basic agreement with a major

U.S. helicopter manufacturer to develop an

unmanned “flying truck” capable of transporting

goods via air. It aims to start commercial use of

the vehicles by the mid-2020s. Yamato reached the agreement

with U.S.-based Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. According to the

two companies, the unmanned aircraft will fly at speeds of at

least 160 kph and carry cargo of up to about 450 kilograms.

Bell will develop the aircraft itself, while Yamato will construct

the cargo container. The companies will produce a prototype

by August 2019 and conduct test flights. The unmanned plane

is faster than a truck, immune to traffic jams and not bound to

road and railway routes, benefits that are expected to reduce

costs. Yamato hopes to use unmanned aircraft to solve the

shortage of truck drivers and other workers that has plagued the

transport industry.

Read more: The Japan News

Bangladesh10 October 2018: A three-day truckers

strike at Chittagong Port to protest a new

traffic liability law in the Dhaka division led

to the disruption of the transport of nearly

5,000 export containers to the off docks near

the port. The strike was called off on Tuesday evening after

talks with government officials following assurances that their

demands and concerns will be discussed. The new law states

that a driver will be sentenced to up to five years in prison

for killing any person on the road unintentionally and will be

sentenced to death if found to have killed someone on the road

intentionally.

Read more: Journal of Commerce

China/Uzbekistan3 October 2018: Uzbekistan and China are one

step closer to constructing the China-Kyrgyzstan-

Uzbekistan railway line, a new branch of New Silk

Road that opens another, shorter route to Iran.

The counterparts agreed to sign a Memorandum of Cooperation

in the railway sector, which contains clauses about this new

railway corridor. The China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway

line has been discussed since the end of the 1990s. In 2003,

the feasibility study was prepared. Initially, the construction of

the 900-kilometre line was evaluated at a cost of €1.1 billion

Euros but later this amount increased to €1.7 billion. Now, the

estimated cost of the project is €5–6 billion.

Read more: RailFreight.com

India8 October 2018: Personnel of the New Guwahati

outpost of Government Railway Police (GRP) arrested

eight suspects in connection with the theft of around

15,000 cartons of milk. According to the GRP, the

suspects are conspirators, receivers and abettors who

were involved in stealing the milk packets after Hijacking a

truck from New Guwahati Railway Station. The truck was also

recovered during the operation.

Read more: Northeast Now (India)

sensitech.com SCIC Global Intelligence Note 12 October 2018 5

North & South America

Brazil10 October 2018: A police operation in the

states of Paraná, Mato Grosso, São Paulo,

Bahia, Goiás, Pernambuco, Federal District,

and Santa Catarina resulted in the arrest

of forty members of a criminal organization

involved in drug trafficking, cargo theft, receiving and collusion

of drivers. The main focus of cargo theft and collusion of drivers

was in the state of Santa Catarina, particularly the region of

Joinville. Stolen loads were traded by receivers. This money

served to pay for drug trafficking in other states. It was found

that many reported cargo thefts in the state of Santa Catarina

were in fact carried out by the drivers themselves.

Read more: Globo G1 (Brazil)

5 October 2018: A load of televisions valued

at one million five hundred thousand reais

was taken in Santa Isabel. According to

the driver, he was driving along the Dutra

Highway when he was forced to stop by another truck. One of

the criminals entered the cabin, and told him to continue driving.

Police found the thieves with the truck and driver in the parking

lot of a restaurant after a complaint. Three criminals were

arrested and the load was recovered.

Read more: Globo G1 (Brazil)

5 October 2018: A truck laden with meat,

cheese and fish was traveling from Recife to

Sapé when it was approached by criminals

on the BR-230 highway in the Santa Rita

region. The criminals drove a vehicle in front

of the truck, forcing the driver to stop. The armed men took

the driver and his helper to a forest area in the same city. The

criminals claimed to want only the load of meat and only took

this product. According to them, the robbery had been ordered.

Read more: Globo G1 (Brazil)

2 October 2018: Police have identified a gang

suspected of stealing soybeans and falsifying

invoices. The drivers were always approached

in the same place, a rubber factory near the toll

of BR 277 Highway, in São José dos Pinhais,

while they slept inside the trucks loaded with soy. After the

drivers surrendered, one of the bandits assumed the driving

of the trucks and so they continued heading towards Curitiba,

stopping on the roadside of BR 277. There they removed the

drivers of the trucks and took them to a forest near the highway,

where they remained until later in the morning. The gang used a

company that produces the falsified invoices.

Read more: Bem Paraná (Brazil)

Mexico7 October 2018: A group of armed men

hijacked a trailer transporting Pharmaceuticals

valued at $1,000,000 MXN. The company

was able to detect the route deviation via

their GPS monitoring system. Authorities were

alerted and later located the cargo unit about 800 meters off

of km 203 of highway Puebla-Orizaba. The driver was located

shortly after, wounded but alive.

7 October 2018: Yet another trailer was looted

after being involved in a traffic accident in the state

of Veracruz. The trailer overturned at km 295+500

of highway México-Veracruz, presumably because

of a brake failure. It was only a matter of minutes

before a group of men, women, and children began carrying

off the cartons of beer, completely closing off circulation of the

highway. Authorities were unable to intervene, leaving the mob

of people free to take as much beer as they could carry.

4 October 2018: Residents of Tamazulápam

del Progreso, Oaxaca have requested that

authorities investigate a group of female students

accused of Hijacking cargo vehicles in order to

steal their merchandise. Videos are circulating on

social media depicting a group of females covering their faces

with articles of clothing as they usher trailers into the facilities

of a local school for teachers. Residents report that this has

happened on several occasions, most recently when the group

detained several vehicles transporting Food & Drinks and other

products before moving them onto the school’s property.

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4 October 2018: Federal Police assisted

in the recovery of a trailer intercepted at

kilometer 171 of highway México-Veracruz.

The truck driver indicated that a red sedan

with police lights had attempted to pull him

over. Suspecting that it was an attempted Hijacking, the driver

refused to stop. Luckily, the criminals decided to flee when

they saw Federal Police officers approaching. Hours earlier,

authorities had confronted criminals staging a fake police

checkpoint along the same highway. Even more alarming is that

the criminal group was operating in broad daylight.

U.S. & Canada11 October 2018: The U.S. government

has outlined a six-part plan that it will use to

inform future policy on autonomous vehicles,

after the Department of Transportation (DOT)

published an eighty-page document on the

technology that it said could “transform mobility” and “improve

safety”. Billed as a clear and consistent Federal approach to

shaping policy for automated vehicles—and with input from

manufacturers and technology developers, infrastructure owners

and transport—the report said that the focus should be on

removing the “unnecessary barriers that could stifle innovation”.

Read more: Transport Security World

6 October 2018: An undocumented immigrant

allegedly linked to a cargo theft investigation that

has yielded almost $25,000 worth of stolen tequila

was arrested. Police in Laredo, Texas, received a

report stating that a pallet containing 1,014 bottles of tequila

was stolen from inside a trailer. The case was assigned to the

Laredo Police Department auto theft task force. The task force

conducted surveillance after a man began advertising on social

media that he had large quantities of tequila for sale, police

said. They investigated a sale of tequila and tracked suspects

in the case back to a residence, where police initiated a search.

Authorities continued their surveillance and conducted a traffic

stop on a suspect vehicle, which led them to an apartment.

Authorities said they found several cases of tequila at each

residence.

Read more: WPTZ-TV (Plattsburgh, NY)

5 October 2018: Over 150 new 2019 bikes

were stolen from a company warehouse. The

brazen overnight theft in Vancouver saw a

shipping container that was on the company’s grounds, emptied

during the night. This theft will have a significant negative impact

on the company’s customers who are expecting their orders to

be delivered in the coming weeks.

Read more: Cycling Magazine

5 October 2018: A Florida man has been

convicted for the December 2016 theft of a truck

load of carpet worth $160,000. After a weeklong

trial, the jury convicted the man on two counts of

cargo theft.

Read more: WDEF-TV (Chattanooga, TN)

18 Oct 2018