Where do stolen motorbikes end up in Italy?
Why are motorbikes stolen?
Theft is a plague that afflicts all societies and even in Italian cities, although safer than many other corners of the planet, there are many of them.
When it comes to vehicles, motorbikes and scooters are among the most stolen and unfortunately in recent years we have been witnessing a slight increase in the number of crimes of this type.
As you might expect, large cities such as Naples, Milan and Rome are particularly suffering from this epidemic
The question might seem trivial, but in reality the reasons that lead certain criminals to take possession of other people's scooters or motorbikes are various and also change according to the Italian regions.
Most of the crimes committed fall into 3 specific categories:
- Theft for resale abroad
- Theft due to disassembly and sale of spare parts
- Theft for use in criminal activities
Obviously there is also a small percentage of thefts that do not fall into any of the three categories. These raids are usually the work of non-professional thieves who basically commit theft for personal reasons and not to fuel other illicit activities.
But why motorcycles and not other vehicles? Obviously we are talking about a business which, in the case of reselling the vehicle as spare parts, can be extremely profitable.
Furthermore, motorbikes and scooters are relatively easy to steal, they are light, easy to move and take up little space in warehouses and containers for subsequent resale on the international black market.
Where do the motorcycles that are stolen in Italy end up?
In this investigation we will focus on the motorcycle thefts of the first point:
Motorcycles that are stolen to be resold abroad.
We will delve into the supply chain that takes vehicles from the legitimate owner's garage to the streets of foreign countries where they are difficult to trace and recover.
The criminal machine behind motorcycle trafficking is well structured and often intersects with the path of other goods that travel illegitimately between states and continents. The main exit routes from the countries are by ships and trucks.
The Marine route
Maritime transport from the most important commercial ports in Europe is mainly exploited, with containers being shipped in various directions, mainly towards North Africa, countries in the Gulf of Guinea and the Horn of Africa.
The route on Gomma
On the other hand, there is a significant traffic of heavy vehicles transporting stolen motorbikes to Eastern European countries . Here the movement takes place almost exclusively by road, therefore with smaller quantities of stolen goods compared to marine transport. In this scenario, being able to recover large quantities of stolen goods is extremely difficult for the police.
But how does this supply chain work?
The motorcycle traffic business - both by sea and by land - is managed by a large, organized international system . This means that there is a network of people spread across European and non-EU territory who collaborate to make the supply chain as fast and less expensive as possible.
Given the scale of this criminal structure, the stolen vehicles must be of a high enough value to recover both the transport costs and the costs of the "labor" that allows the supply chain to acquire the vehicles.
There is also the cost of corruption of port authorities and personnel to consider which - as we will illustrate later - is of fundamental importance for this traffic.
It is for this reason that the vehicles that are transported illicitly are almost always of medium-high value and mainly include large-engined vehicles of recent years. International traffic of small and low-priced vehicles is not very widespread and remains a phenomenon destined for the internal black market, mainly for spare parts.
Many motorcycles stolen in our country are therefore first stolen and then transported to collection centers in other cities. Very often these are found in sheds away from prying eyes or places on the edge of quite busy port areas, so as not to attract attention.
Here the vehicles are handled and prepared for shipment.
Stolen motorbikes are often also cloned, i.e. the license plate number of an existing motorbike is taken and replaced with that of the stolen motorbike. In this way, the vehicle takes on the identity of the original motorbike using falsified stickers or license plates. In some cases thieves can also replace the documents of the original motorcycle in order to make the cloning even more credible.
From Italy to Africa
The stolen vehicles, whole or dismantled, are then taken to the commercial hubs overlooking the Mediterranean, where they end up inside well-hidden containers together with other types of regularly declared goods.
In Italy the ports of reference for this type of traffic are those of Genoa and Naples, in which the police have repeatedly conducted stolen property recovery operations , with the discovery of numerous means of transport and motorcycles.
In 2020, the Guardia di Finanza managed to recover dozens of motorcycles stolen from the Port of Genoa, crammed into some containers and well hidden behind several tons of steel pipes. In the same operation, more than 200 engines and other motorbikes were recovered, completely dismantled and hidden in several other containers, complete with a number of completely abraded frames. The containers in question were destined to reach West Africa.
In the same year, in May, the Naples Financial Police seized 14 large-displacement motorcycles that had been hidden inside a container departing from the port of Naples and bound for Tunisia. Thanks to the collaboration with the Tunisian authorities, the motorcycles were recovered and returned to their legitimate owners.
In another case, in December 2019, the Naples State Police recovered an entire fleet of stolen motorcycles that had been hidden inside a warehouse inside the port. The motorcycles had been stolen in various Italian regions and also had to be shipped to African ports.
In a recent report by Interpol, which often collaborates with the Italian authorities in large international operations to fight illegal trafficking, it was confirmed that the transport of stolen goods starting from the Mediterranean ports of Europe is mainly destined for the commercial hubs of the Gulf of Guinea and the Horn of Africa. Here the stolen goods are sorted and distributed to the various countries of the sub-Saharan area.
To understand how difficult it is to find these vehicles, just consider that approximately 90% of the goods transported in the world travel by sea and, on average, only 2% of containers are physically checked in the destination ports .
This is an important fact that makes us understand how the international stolen motorcycle racket can be conducted successfully. Especially in countries such as those in Africa, where the corruption of authorities and transport company personnel is a widespread phenomenon that facilitates the undisturbed passage of thousands of stolen vehicles every year.
Again according to the Interpol report, the African ports where the majority of vehicles stolen in Europe are unloaded are Mombasa in Kenya and Dakar in Senegal .
Who is behind this "criminal machine"? The data collected over the years by Interpol speak of numerous actors in the illegal trafficking of goods chain, ranging from well-known African armed and terrorist groups to the involvement of businessmen and public officials both in Europe and in Africa.
The Italian mafia also plays an important role (Interpol cites the Ndrangheta) and although the main activity is drug trafficking, it is often involved in other types of illegal transport including stolen cars and motorbikes.
The recovery operations of illegally transported goods are becoming increasingly international and the law enforcement agencies of the various European countries are currently working jointly to break up often interconnected trafficking. It is not uncommon for vehicles and goods stolen in Northern or Western Europe to depart from Mediterranean ports; the internationalization of such crime requires dialogue between the police activities of the entire European territory, as happened with the "Carback" operation conducted by 'Interpol in 2022. During this international mobilization of police forces in ports in 77 countries, 1,121 stolen cars and 64 motorbikes were recovered, with 222 people arrested.
From Italy to Eastern Europe
Then there is a second international "traffick" of stolen motorbikes, which takes place by land towards Eastern countries and which follows very different dynamics compared to the transport of stolen goods by sea.
The vehicles that are stolen from their owners in Italian cities are taken to collection centers where they are also in this case dismantled or cloned, and transported eastwards on trucks.
After a wave of thefts recorded in the 2010/20 decade, traffic towards the East is slowly decreasing but remains a widespread problem throughout Europe. Unlike sea transport to Africa, vehicles traveling by road are easily lost in a dense and always very busy motorway network.
The only points where it is possible to recover this stolen property are the border controls that separate the countries in the Schengen area (where there is no need to show a passport and undergo checks) from those outside Europe. Ukraine is especially an important center for this type of activity because stolen vehicles are collected here and then end up in Russia and Western Asian countries much further from European borders.
Another front on which national and international law enforcement agencies are moving is the web, the scene of a series of operations conducted by the Postal Police over the last decade aimed at stamping out the sale of stolen motorbikes in Italy through websites with Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Czech, Romanian dominions. On these web pages you could find photos and details of motorbikes still with Italian license plates, often sold without documents or with falsified registration documents.
After a joint international investigation between Italian and foreign police forces, and also thanks to the mobilization of the owners themselves who managed to gather information and conduct searches via social media, many motorbikes were recovered between 2014 and 2020 and several people were arrested.
In 2022 another gang was defeated near Milan, their activity consisted of stealing motorbikes that were kept in Italy but sold online all over the world, mainly Eastern Europe and Africa. Once the stolen goods were sold, the shipment was organized by hiding the vehicles in containers and trucks.
With an improved efficiency of online investigations by European police forces, the phenomenon of online sales of stolen vehicles has become increasingly risky for thieves, and happens less and less often.
From another point of view, however, UNESCO sources confirm that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is increasing illicit trafficking from Europe to the border states with Russia , mainly regarding medicines, tobacco and drugs, but also of various goods stolen people who - due to the confusion created by the war - would be able to find new ways to pass through the borders undisturbed. Even the motorbikes and cars stolen from us, therefore, could end up once again fueling the illegal trafficking of the Balkan route.
Why are stolen motorbikes sold in Africa and Eastern Europe?
We can answer this question with a series of reasons that help us understand the phenomenon. We have already illustrated some explanations in the text, such as the lack of border controls and the ease with which port staff and authorities can be corrupted.
In poorer countries than Europe, crime can exploit the need for money from people in poorly paid jobs. Both transport company workers and local police officers often "supplement" their income with activities bordering on legality and are inclined to accept money in order not to carry out the necessary checks, which increases the spread of petty corruption.
This is possible because the state structure of developing countries does not always have control over the money that circulates irregularly and corruption is a difficult to trace phenomenon that also affects the upper levels of society such as politics and multinationals.
A consideration to be made and which also explains the reason why stolen motorbikes can safely circulate in some countries is that the controls on the roads are much less rigid and the ability of the authorities to check the authenticity of the vehicle documents is far less .
In the Central African states, where many of these large-displacement motorbikes are sold, many vehicles circulate even without license plates, without inspections and without documents with a very low risk of being seized.
How is this traffic supported?
On an economic level, the trafficking of stolen vehicles is a money machine that generates hundreds of millions of Euros, but it is very difficult to draw up precise economic statistics.
Motorcycles are only a small percentage of criminal activities related to vehicles (mainly oriented towards car theft) but they contribute to the business and fill the pockets of various organized groups which are also very successful in Italy.
Unfortunately, just over 1/3 of the two-wheeled vehicles are recovered by the police . In the 2022 ministerial data, referring to the whole of 2021, the scooters and motorbikes that returned to their legitimate owners were 9,678, just 36% of the total stolen vehicles, but the proportion is reduced by up to 1/4 in the case of motorcycles that are taken outside European borders.
Those who enrich themselves the most in this supply chain are above all the large international criminal organizations, which manage an enormous number of illegal activities and represent the top of the pyramid.
Those who are at the base, however, are the so-called "labourers", i.e. the last wheel of the cart and the most exposed: the thieves who carry out the thefts.
It is estimated that those who commit the act of stealing a vehicle in Europe (cars and motorcycles) actually put 1.25% of the value of the vehicle in their pocket. This means that for a motorbike or car priced at 20,000 euros, what the thief actually earns is around 250 euros.
And who buys stolen motorbikes?
In this case the sale can have different channels and different levels. As regards transport from Europe to Africa, it is often a sale between local criminals who sell the stolen vehicle and those who deal with the transport and insertion into the foreign black market.
In this case the first sale to the transporter takes place at approximately 1/3 of the market value of the vehicle, while on the African black market the vehicle can cost the end user from half to 2/3 of the market price of that particular motorbike or car would have had in Europe.
International police operations continue to take place both in terms of port and border controls and in the monitoring of online criminal activities.
However, a constant increase in efficiency in the fight against trafficking in stolen vehicles also corresponds to a renewed "creativity" on the part of criminal associations which - as Interpol underlines in its report - is also starting to use various channels such as dedicated boats to fishing, ferries and cruise ships.
SOURCES USED FOR RESEARCH
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
