South Florida cargo thefts rising again
Cargo thefts are on the rise again in South Florida, drawing comparisons to the early 1990s, when thefts from warehouses and shipping containers reached a peak.
'Cargo theft is running rampant,' Hugo Gomez, Miami-based cargo theft consultant told the Florida Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association at a Wednesday luncheon meeting.
Gomez, of Hugo Gomez & Associates, said the Miami area has become the staging point for sophisticated cargo theft operations in cities around the country. He said many suspects being apprehended in connection with the thefts are foreign nationals. Many are originally from Cuba and now based near Miami in Hialeah, while others have criminal backgrounds from Latin America.
Backing up his claim, Gomez cited a heist in Chicago that initially netted cargo valued at $11 million. The case was broken because law enforcement officials in South Florida were tracking a suspected cargo theft ring. Six of the eight suspects arrested in Chicago were foreign nationals living in Hialeah, Gomez said.
In Florida, the most common thefts involve thieves 'torching' their way through warehouse doors, as well as thefts from containers known as 'leakage,' in which freight is removed from sealed containers and replaced with rocks or something else with a roughly equal weight.
Commenting on container thefts not discovered until consignees open containers at destination, Gomez said 'They always say it (the theft) happened in South America, but most of it happens in Miami.
He warned Florida logistics professionals to make the effort to counter cargo thefts at warehouses, using practices like placing cellular transmitters where thieves cannot easily see the equipment, or having off-site monitors.
In many cases, he said, experienced thieves take out entire on-site security systems, including servers used to store security camera information. They disable land phone lines used for security systems, sometimes for the entire area where a warehouse is located, and take out backup cellular transmitters by simply cutting the antenna.
Ray Fernandez, vice president of Sealock Security Systems, also gave a presentation at the FCBF luncheon on how professional cargo thieves can use several different methods to break into containers without breaking common container seals.
'We have become complacent,' warned Greg Kritz, Miami-based vice president, eastern division, of insurance company Roanoke Trade Services. Kritz is an active member of the FCBF who organizes the annual security presentation.
Gomez said that although adequate security requires both cost and effort, logistics professionals need to ask themselves, 'Is it worth my while to keep the customer?'