Another €17.8m of Products Stolen from Supply Chains in EMEA in 30 Days

All cargo thefts carry a considerable impact on the victim companies, usually financial and reputational costs. But when pharmaceutical supply chains are targeted, the consequences can run much deeper.

As was the case on April 20 when thieves broke into a healthcare product supplier’s facility in Nanterre, Hauts-de-Seine, in the western suburbs of Paris and stole a reported €1 million of cancer treatment drugs. In addition to the quantity of pharmaceuticals taken in the attack, other crates of products removed from the temperature-controlled storage room were rendered useless.

Generally in such incidents, pharma thefts trigger a domino-effect of disruption across a company’s supply chain. Previous cases have required the destruction of all products baring the same batch number as the stolen goods from across the victim company’s supply chain because of the patient health dangers that can be associated with stolen goods re-entering the supply chain via the black market. Once criminals remove drugs from their strictly regulated storage and transportation environments, their product safety and integrity are breached and the pharma companies concerned must take decisive action to ensure public safety as well as to protect their own brand reputations.

It is because of these high stakes that TAPA EMEA records a relatively low number of pharma thefts from supply chains in the Europe, Middle East & Africa region. The pharma industry is extremely adept at maintaining supply chain security and product integrity but on the occasions of a loss, the true cost can 5-7x the value of the stolen goods once the process involving product recall, investigation, product replacement, transportation, communication, and insurance costs are accounted for.

Over the last two years, the TAPA EMEA Intelligence System (TIS) has recorded 118 thefts of pharmaceuticals in 30 countries across EMEA. Most have not shared their loss value, but known high-value cases over this period have also included:

€3,000,000 – pharma thefts from an Origin Facility in Lancenigo, Italy
€2,000,000 – theft from an Origin Facility in Bologna, Italy
€1,400,000 – loss from a facility in Naples, Italy
€1,241,034 – theft from a facility in Irkutsk, Russia
€400,000 – pharmaceuticals stolen from a trailer in Castle Donnington, United Kingdom
€300,000 – products taken from a Services 3^rd Party Facility in Ancona, Italy

Reflecting another well-known fact that cargo criminals rarely take a day off, this latest high profile pharma theft in France took place on Easter Sunday.

Cargo crimes recorded over the extended Easter break were among a total of 515 thefts from supply chains recorded in the TIS database in April. The 84 or 16.3% of these reporting a loss value – the lowest percentage in 2025 so far – produced a total loss of €17,892,717.

The average loss for all recorded cargo crimes with a value was >€213,000, while April’s financial loss total was equal to €596,423 of goods being stolen from supply chains across the region every 24 hours over the 30 days of the month.

The previously mentioned pharma theft in France was one of five cargo crimes in April with a loss value of €1m or more.

The biggest single loss so far in the TIS database in April was a €6,000,000 theft of gold bars stolen and other high-value commodities from a truck at an Origin Facility in Occitanie, France, on the second day of the month, the highest single loss reported in Vigilant during the opening four months of the year. According to intelligence sources, a group of criminals raided a company specialising in the transportation of works of art and antiques located in Verdun-sur-Garonne in southern France.

The target was an armoured truck loaded with gold bars, artistic furniture, and other valuable pieces. Even though the facility’s alarm was activated around 23.30hrs, the speed and precision of the attack has led investigators to suspect that the perpetrators had prior information about the vehicle’s contents, its location, and the lack of security during the night. A member of the public recorded the criminals’ escape on her smartphone. She also decided to follow the suspects to document what was happening. Police later found the burnt-out remains of the truck and several pieces of artwork, but the gold bars were missing.

This high value single loss pushed the average value of all 22 major cargo thefts recorded by TAPA EMEA in April (involving goods worth €100K or more) to €770,740.

Other major cargo losses in April included:

€2,346,000 – A shipment of sports equipment, including golf clubs, stolen from an Authorised 3^rd Party Facility in the United Kingdom on 26 April. No further details were provided.
€1,500,000 – On 8 April in Drachten, Friesland, in the Netherlands, a man was arrested by police for stealing vehicles worth over €1,500,000. Several were recovered as part of the police investigation.
€1,000,000 – Over 300kgs of cannabis with an estimated value of €1m was discovered when police intercepted a shipping container in Witham, UK, on 23 April. A man was later arrested in connection to the crime.
€830,255 – Thieves escaped with 480 laptops from a truck in a secured parking location in the town of Bingen am Rhein in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on 8 April.
€620,000 – 73 tons of copper was stolen in a robbery of an Origin Facility in Austria on 9 April. The exact location was not reported.
€536,000 – Offenders broke into a warehouse facility through a technical shaft before stealing several brands of vintage wine. This incident took place in Biel, Switzerland, on 2 April.
€500,000 – Three men were arrested in connection to the theft of copper wiring from an Origin Facility in Alicante, Spain, on 21 April.
€300,000 – A large quantity of cheese was stolen in a Deceptive Pick-up from an Origin Facility in Condé-sur-Vire, France, on 11 April.
€275,000 – Following an extensive investigation since June 2024 into several thefts of semi-trailers loaded with merchandise – including textiles and electronic devices – from various industrial estates in Spain, police raided an industrial warehouse in Zaragoza on 15 May and arrested two people as well as recovering over €275,000 worth of clothing, cosmetics, and toys.
€174,500 – A shipment of toys/games was taken from a trailer at a Destination Facility in the United Kingdom on 8 April.
€150,000 – On 3 April, offenders stole bicycles from a truck at a motorway service stations in Germany.
€108,000 – Two suspects involved in an armed robbery of a Services 3^rd Party Facility in Massazza, Piedmont, Italy, and the theft of cash on 11 April were later arrested by police

France, Spain, and the United Kingdom were the countries with the highest number of major cargo thefts (€100K+) in April with four incidents each, followed by Italy (3), Germany (2), Switzerland (2), and single crimes in Austria, the Netherlands, and Russia.

Of the crimes sharing a loss value, TIS also received reports of 4 incidents targeting goods with a value of between €50,000 and €100,000, accounting for €235,000 of the total April loss figure. These included:

€55,000 – On 24 April in Breda in the Netherlands, thieves broke into a vehicle parked in an unclassified parking location and escaped with a large quantity of cosmetic products.
€50,000 – Police arrested five people on the Canary Islands, Spain, on 21 April, in connection with an investigation into the theft of phones from a telecommunications company over a sustained period. One of those arrested worked for the company as a delivery driver.

TAPA EMEA was notified of cargo thefts from supply chains in 29 countries in April. Germany retained its top spot for the highest number of newly-recorded cargo thefts in the TIS database, with 121 incidents or 23.5% of the crimes recorded within the month. The 24 of these crimes reporting a value produced a total loss of €1,177,300.

Eight other countries recorded double-digit incident rates:

Italy – 74 crimes or 14.3% of the April total
Spain – 66 or 12.8%
United Kingdom – 56 or 10.8%
France – 48 or 9.3 %
Poland – 31 or 6.0%
Netherlands – 26 or 5.0%
South Africa – 20 or 3.8%
Belgium – 11 or 2.1%

Products targeted over the 30 days of the month covered 21 TIS categories.

Fuel thefts continued to account for the highest percentage of all known crimes impacting supply chains in EMEA with another 50 incidents (9.7%) of the April total. Other products with 10 or more losses over the month were:

Metal – 46 thefts
Cash – 23
Food & Drink – 19
No Load (Theft of truck and/or trailer) – 17
Miscellaneous Electronics – 13
Clothing & Footwear – 11
Tobacco – 10

TIS data for this 30-day period showed the M.O of Violent & Threat with Violence reported in 44 criminal attacks.

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

23 suspects arrested of the theft of 180,000 litres of fuel in Anambra, Nigeria.
1,812 bottles of shower gel stolen from an unclassified parking location in Hoogvliet Rotterdam, Netherlands.
600 kilos of copper cable taken from containers at a warehouse facility in Trabada, Spain.
70 boxes of beach shoes stolen from a facility in Hessen, Germany.
1,188 boxes of chips stolen from a facility in Veurne, Belgium.
5 pallets of coffee machines taken from a truck parked in a motorway service area in an unreported location in Germany.
3.5 tons of coal was stolen from a facility in Thrakomakedones, Greece.
17,000 lipsticks stolen from a truck in an unclassified parking location in Spain.

Details of these and all cargo thefts reported to TAPA EMEA can be accessed by the Association’s members by logging into the password-protected TIS database using their unique MyTAPA login.