‘This doesn’t mean the ship owners, or even the captains, know what they are carrying. But it is relatively easy for traffickers to hide arms and drugs in among legitimate cargoes,’ says report co-author Hugh Griffiths.
Drug traffickers lead, arms traffickers follow
The report also shows that the methods adopted by arms trafficking networks in response to the UN arms embargoes on Iran and North Korea were pioneered by drug traffickers in the past few decades to evade detection. These methods include hiding the goods in sealed shipping containers that claim to carry legitimate items; sending the goods on foreign-owned ships engaged in legitimate trade; and using circuitous routes to make the shipments harder for surveillance operations to track.
‘Containerization has revolutionized international trade, but it also provides ideal cover for traffickers. So many shipping containers pass through the world’s ports every day that only a fraction can be inspected. Ship owners and even customs officers often just have to take it on trust that what’s inside the container is what it says on the cargo documents,’ says Griffiths.
Shabby boats for shady deals
The report also shows that in the cases where the ship owners, operators and captains appear to have been directly involved in the trafficking attempt, the ships tend to be older and to be sailing under ‘flags of convenience’ whose ships regularly perform badly in safety and pollution inspections when they enter ports. A ship is considered to be under a flag of convenience when it has the nationality of a state other than that where its real owner is based.
‘Governing maritime trade has always been challenging, but opportunities are being missed to improve surveillance and use existing mechanisms to crack down on trafficking. This is an international phenomenon that requires international cooperation involving the major players in the shipping industry. We hope this report acts as a wake-up call,’ says Griffiths.
Table: The top 12 states where owners of ships involved in reported cases of arms, dual-use goods and narcotics trafficking are based
|
Owner based in |
% of reported drug and arms trafficking cases |
% of world merchant fleet owned in the state |
|
1. Germany |
19.5 |
7.1 |
|
2. Greece |
10.6 |
8.2 |
|
3. United States |
7.8 |
4.3 |
|
4. North Korea |
4.8 |
0.1 |
|
5. Panama |
4.3 |
0.1 |
|
6. Iran |
3 |
0.5 |
|
7. Norway |
2.4 |
4.6 |
|
8. Russian Federation |
2.4 |
6.0 |
|
9. Belize |
1.9 |
0.01 |
|
10. Netherlands |
1.9 |
2 |
|
11. Denmark |
1.7 |
2.0 |
|
12. Japan |
1.7 |
8.4 |
Notes: Only commercial ships over 100 gross tonnes that are identified as being involved in reported cases are included in the trafficking statistics. The world merchant fleet ownership statistics are from IHS Fairplay and only include vessels over 1000 tonnes, and are provided for indicative purposes only.
For editors
The report Maritime Transportation and Destabilizing Commodity Flows is written by Hugh Griffiths and Michael Jenks of the SIPRI Countering Illicit Trafficking—Mechanism Assessment Projects (CIT-MAP). The report is a pilot study on all commercial ships over 100 gross tonnes reportedly involved in illicit or destabilizing arms and narcotics transfers over the past 20 years using SIPRI’s newly established Vessel and Maritime Incident Database.