A New Year… But Nothing Changes as Cargo Losses in January Surpass €37.2m in 31 Days

The start of a new year is a time of hope and positive thinking… but, when it comes to cargo crime, any optimism linked to a decline in loss values for cargo thefts from supply chains in Europe, the Middle East & Africa, was short-lived. 31 days to be precise, as incidents recorded by TAPA EMEA in January produced a daily loss of €1,202.731.

Welcome to 2025. Not much has changed.

Based on information already reported to the TAPA EMEA Intelligence System (TIS), the opening month of the year produced 440 new cargo thefts – accounting for a total loss for the month of €37,284,668. This figure is based on only 27.5% of the crimes confirming their loss value and produced an average loss for these thefts alone of €303,127.

South Africa recorded the biggest single loss for the second consecutive month, and another crime involving goods worth more than €10 million. January’s biggest theft saw offenders steal €10,271,057 of precious metals from an Origin Facility close to Cape Town in the early hours of the morning on 25 January.

Police information said four offenders destroyed a perimeter fence to enter the cargo area, reportedly left unattended by security personnel, and found a set of keys to the vault containing the precious metals. The South African Police Service (SAPS) issued a public appeal for information linked to the theft.

Such a high value single loss pushed the average value of all 39 major cargo thefts – crimes involving goods worth €100K or more – to €902,707.

January’s loss was 22.8% higher than the level reported in Vigilant for the first month of 2024, and falls only slightly behind the largest monthly loss figure reported across the whole of last year, the €40,255,270 of cargo crime losses reported over the 30 days of November.

Major cargo thefts in January 2025 also included:

€5,500,000 – on 29 January, offenders used deception and counterfeit documentation to steal a large consignment of cigarettes from a Maritime Transportation Facility in Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. No further details are available.
€4,000,000 – in the countryside setting of Canosa di Puglia, Italy, six people were arrested on 20 January in connection with the theft of 25 cars from a Destination Facility.
€3,000,000 – offenders targeted a pharmaceutical warehouse supplying a hospital in Lancenigo, Italy.
€1,300,000 – a man was arrested on 22 January following a spate of robberies on cash-in-transit vans in Puglia, Italy.
€1,000,000 – on 11 January, thieves stole a large shipment of catalytic converters from a trailer left in an unclassified parking location in Bavaria, Germany.
€700,000 – medical equipment was stolen from a vehicle en route in Madrid, Spain, on 18 January.
€591,000 – police in the United Kingdom recovered stolen golf clubs. No more information was reported. 0
€500,000 – 5 suspects were later arrested after a truck loaded with milk powder was stolen from a parking location in Breda in the Netherlands on 23 January.
€400,000 – police in Dudley, United Kingdom, arrested the owner of a business suspected of earning €400,000 from a counterfeit goods operation selling tobacco products.
€397,678 – on 4 January, four men were arrested for a series of thefts of foreign cars in Moscow, Russia. The four offenders had all been previously convicted of similar offences.
€366,000 – a large shipment of imported goods from China was stolen from an Authorised 3^rd Party Facility by warehouse employees. Product details were not recorded.
€350,000 – a theft of luxury sports shoes from a retail facility in Madrid, Spain, on 14 January.
€300,000 – pharmaceuticals stolen from a Services 3^rd Party Facility in Ancona, Italy, on 23 January.
€270,000 – 10 tons of copper was taken from an Authorised 3^rd Party Facility in France on 5 January.
€270,000 – 400 sets of car tyres were stolen from a car dealership in an unreported location in Germany on 7 January.
€250,000 – on New Year’s Day, thieves stole jewellery/precious metals from an Authorised 3^rd Party Facility in France. No specific location was recorded.
€220,000 – thieves targeted a truck loaded with electronic household appliances in an unclassified parking location in Zurich, Switzerland, on 18 January.
€160,000 – three men were arrested in connection with the theft of 3,200kgs of copper wiring from an Origin Facility in Sant Mateu, Spain, on 20 January.
€147,000 – a delivery driven in Denmark was sentenced on 16 January for stealing phones from loads.
€130,000 – offenders stole 1,300 boxes of cheese from a loaded truck at an Authorised 3^rd Party Facility in France on 6 January.
€120,000 – 4 people were arrested after copper was stolen from an Origin Facility in Cartagena, Spain, on 17 January.
€100,000 – on 19 January, a shipment of tools/building materials was taken from a warehouse on an industrial estate in France. The site location was not shared in the incident report.
€100,000 – two suspects were arrested in an undisclosed part of Italy on 22 January for stealing over 5,000kg of copper from a local train station.

Germany recorded the highest number of major cargo thefts (€100K+) in January with seven incidents, followed by Spain (6), Italy (5), France (5), Netherlands (5), United Kingdom (3), Russia (2), South Africa (2) and single crimes in Denmark, Kazakhstan, Romania and Switzerland.

TIS also received reports of 19 cargo crimes reporting a loss of between €50,000 and €100,000. These accounted for €1,327,862 of the total loss in January and included:

€80,000 – 1,200 watches were stolen from a truck parked at a motorway rest area in Germany on 30 January.
€75,000 – on 13 January, in an undisclosed location in Italy, 1,400kg of copper was stolen from a company facility.
€60,000 – bicycles were stolen following a ram raid on a bike store in France on 20 January.
€50,000 – in Lehrte, Lower Saxony, Germany, a shipment of filters for espresso coffee machines and dehumidifiers was stolen from a truck parked at a motorway service area on 23 January.

Other products stolen in this value range included frozen food, gold jewellery, and tobacco.

TAPA EMEA was notified of cargo thefts from supply chains in 34 countries across the region in January, led by 110 crimes in Germany, 25% of the monthly total. Eight other countries recorded double digit rates of incidents:

Italy – 70 crimes or 15.9% of the January total
Spain – 56 or 12.7%
United Kingdom – 50 or 11.3%
France – 30 or 6.8%
Netherlands – 28 or 6.3%
South Africa – 23 or 5.2%
Belgium – 12 or 2.7%
Austria – 11 or 2.1%

Products targeted over the 31 days of the month covered 18 TIS categories. The high rate of fuel thefts, mostly from trucks, reported throughout 2024 continued in January 2025 with another 112 incidents. Other TIS product categories recording double-digit losses over the course of the month were:

Metal – 45
No Load (Theft of truck and/or trailer) – 28
Food & Drink – 28
Tools/Building Materials – 27
Cash – 22
Miscellaneous Electronics – 16
Auto Parts – 12
Clothing & Footwear – 11

TIS crime reports showed 44 incidents with the M.O of Violent & Threat with Violence.

Other incidents Vigilant is authorised to share for this reporting period included:

17 hunting rifles stolen from a commercial armoury in France.
Arrests of two men following the theft of 26 truck batteries from a facility in La Palma, Spain.
600 litres of olive oil stolen from a food bank warehouse in Portugal.
59,000 litres of diesel taken from a military facility in Pratica di Mare, Italy.
29 boxes of Italian Ham taken from a truck parked on a street in Cervella, Spain.
1,500 kilos of olives stolen from a factory in Montilla, Spain.
26 washing machines, 10 dishwashers and 6 refrigerators stolen as well as a semi-trailer from an industrial site in Zaragoza, Spain.

Details of these and all cargo thefts reported to TAPA EMEA can be accessed by the Association’s members by logging into the TIS database via their MyTAPA login