Every year nearly half a billion shipping containers are transported
across the globe.
These movements are the lifeblood of global trade, and
yet secreted within a relatively small number of containers are illegal
consignments of drugs, hazardous waste, counterfeit goods, dual-use
items destined for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programmes, and
small arms and light weapons that end up in the hands of terrorists or
fuel civil wars.
Containerization has changed the face of smuggling and become many smugglers’ weapon of choice. It has also made some of the biggest commercial shipping lines into the smugglers’ unwitting partners in crime and left customs authorities struggling to keep up.
But the information these shippers hold, if it were shared with enforcement authorities, could be a key element in the fight back against modern-day smuggling.
Read the Expert Comment by SIPRI Researchers Lawrence Dermody, Aaron Dunne and Hugh Griffiths.