High-Value Shipments At Risk: The Growing Threat Of Strategic Cargo Theft

Increasingly tech-savvy criminal networks are finding ways to target higher value shipments.

A steep rise in the number of 'strategic thefts' worldwide has cargo owners investigating ways to tighten supply-chain operations without interrupting the flow of trade.

In North America, overall cargo thefts rose a comparative 49% in the first half this year (2024) as increasingly tech-savvy thieves targeted warehouses and shipments moving by land. According to that account, the average loss per shipment grew 83% for the period (against 1H 2023), highlighting the growing ability of criminals to specifically target shipments of high-value goods.

The rise in 'strategic thefts' - loosely defined as those using methods that deceive the custodians of goods into handing them over (as opposed to 'opportunistic' thefts) - wasn't isolated to North America, where the F.B.I. believes U.S.-based incidents of cargo theft cost the local economy US$30bn each year.