Europe’s two largest container ports have introduced new systems to hamper criminals from paying corrupt insiders for key shipping codes to steal containers with hidden caches of drugs.
Officials found that criminal gangs had taken advantage of the widespread sharing of unique computerised details of a container to infiltrate supply chains and claim the valuable cargoes as their own.
The scheme — known as PIN code fraud — relied on gangs paying hundreds of thousands of euros to corrupt insiders involved in shipping logistics to hand over the code.
