Keeping high-value cargo safe is no easy undertaking considering that cargo crime is a multi-billion-euro industry.According to the Transported Asset Protection Association (Tapa), over €172 million of products were stolen from supply chains in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Emea) during 2020.And the problem is expected to remain significant in 2021 judging by interim figures available for the first half of the year.Cargo crime data captured by Tapa Emea’s incident information service (IIS) showed South Africa as one of the areas with the highest number of recorded incidents in the first six months of the year. Five countries in the Emea region – the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, France and South Africa – accounted for 1 185 or over 75% of all cargo crimes reported to Tapa’s IIS during the first six months of the year.In January, a group of offenders stole trailers carrying a cargo of copper plates valued at €413 994 from a business in Olifantsfontein in Gauteng. During the same month, catalytic converters to the value of €695 095 were taken during a hijacking in the Western Cape.All three of the major crimes recorded in July this year also took place in South Africa, most notably the theft of 7000 tyres valued at more than €5 million from a facility in Durban in KwaZulu-Natal. In another incident in Cape Town, a truck transporting a cargo of catalytic converters was forced to stop by offenders driving a pick-up truck. The passengers approached the truck, pointing a firearm at the driver and his passenger. After the hijacking, the truck was driven to an unknown location where the shipment was unloaded. The truck was later found abandoned. The cargo, valued at more than €800 000, was recovered by investigators, although the suspects are still on the run.In a third incident, a gang of armed criminals driving in four cars ambushed a cash-in-transit van in Gqeberha, stealing a large quantity of very high-value cargo, namely banknotes. The driver of the cash-in-transit vehicle was arrested shortly after the incident on suspicion of involvement in the incident.Other crimes in South Africa involving high-value cargo included the theft of televisions, monitors and laptops from a cargo facility in Durban, as well as the theft of valuable batteries and other equipment from premises in nearby Pinetown.According to Tapa, at least 32.9% of the incidents reported during the first half of the year in the Emea region involved theft from vehicles. “A total of 66 truck and van hijackings were recorded as well as 47 cases of clandestine intrusion. Only 3.8% of incidents were theft from facility attacks,” said Thorsten Neumann, president and CEO of Tapa Emea. “Of the known types of locations where cargo crimes occurred, the destination facility recorded the highest total of 380 incidents of the half-yearly total. This partly ref lects the growth in attacks on last-mile delivery vehicles. The lack
