After a number of high-profile cases of drugs being smuggled in containers, and evidence that criminals are diversifying routes to make detection less likely, Orbcomm says smart containers could play a role in reducing shipper exposure to this risk.
Tracking and telemetry equipment from both Orbcomm and Nexxiot has been fitted to all the reefers and two-thirds of the dry containers – around 1.5m – in Hapag Lloyd’s fleet, in the hope that container tracking will become a global standard.
Meanwhile, this week, MSC launched iReefer for its reefer container fleet, allowing customers to monitor and track the boxes remotely, with paid ‘Pro’ and ‘Ultimate’ tiers set to go live later this month.
Last week, news emerged of a criminal conspiracy to smuggle counterfeit designer clothes, handbags, perfumes, and watches into the US through the ports of LA and Long Beach by hiding them in containers. The nine alleged gang members opened containers at the port, removed customs seals, retrieved the smuggled goods and replacing the seals with fakes. The authorities seized some $130m of illicit goods.
“With this much activity, transnational criminal organisations have a wide berth to operate and exploit vulnerabilities, and the defendants charged in this indictment took full advantage,” a US Department of Homeland Security agent said.
Last month, customs authorities noted that drug busts at the port of Rotterdam had decreased had last year, but increased at ports elsewhere such as Vlissingen. Mariette Bode, chief public prosecutor of the Zeeland-West-Brabant region, said fewer big single busts had been uncovered, but smaller findings were spread among a larger number of containers.
But there is no prospect of a significant proportion of containers being inspected for drugs or other contraband without an enormous slowdown in trade. According to a recent Europol report, fewer than 10% of containers transiting EU ports get inspected.
Orbcomm’s chief commercial officer, Christian Allred, says tracking and telemetry devices could tackle the issue from the other side – inside the containers.
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“Smart containers… offer innovations like open/close sensing, using lasers and light sensors… [providing] instant alerts for unauthorised interference. Notifications of key events ensures swift responses, on land with cellular coverage, and at sea from crew using onboard networks.”
This could close one of the main avenues for smuggling, container tampering. Teams of ‘extractors’ – many of them teens – are tasked with evading port security to break open containers carrying drug and contraband shipments. And, Orbcomm said, some $700m was lost through cargo theft each year.
The import of fentanyl to the US, the constituents of which originate from China and India, often hidden among legitimate goods, has been given as the justification for clashes between the US and its neighbouring governments. Some 98% of the drug entering the US is thought to be synthesised by cartels in Mexico and smuggled into the US by drug traffickers. President Trump said this week that “…tariffs are going to go substantially higher…if China does not stop sending us fentanyl”.
The next step for Orbcomm is to introduce infra-red motion sensors for containers, Mr Allred said – as used in locked cars – to detect movement inside containers, “promising even greater scrutiny by detecting unauthorised activity during transit”.
Source: the loadstar
