The New Geography of Stolen Goods

For centuries, criminals have nicked valuable products and smuggled them across borders. Britain today shows how this model has evolved in new and alarming ways

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The MSC Ruby is almost ready to leave Felixstowe. Seven remote-controlled gantry cranes are still at work, stacking containers in the ship's bays. Some 11,000 containers pass through this port each day, making it Britain's primary conduit to the arteries of global trade. The Ruby's next call is Gran Canaria—then, the long run down the coast of Africa. Watching the scene Adam Gibson, the lone police officer at the port, whose job is finding stolen cars, sounds rueful: "There's no way in hell I can search even a small fraction of them. We could be standing here now, and there could be three or four boxes of stolen cars just there in those stacks. They could be manifested as teddy bears."

Without many people noticing, Britain has become a leading exporter of stolen goods. In the past decade, the number of vehicles stolen in the country has risen by 75%. Most end up on container ships; the top destination is West Africa. More recently, London has become known as the "phone-snatching capital of Europe." If the victims manage to track their devices, the goods are most likely to turn up in China. British farmers are plagued by raiding gangs. Their tractors and GPS kits usually head east, to Russia or Eastern Europe.

For centuries, criminals have nicked valuable products and smuggled them across borders, beyond the reach of the law. Britain today shows how this model has evolved in new and alarming ways. Encrypted communications have enabled criminal gangs to operate and cooperate more freely than ever before, and establish global supply chains. As countries in Africa and Asia have become richer, demand for the products common on the streets of the rich world is growing. This combination has spawned a flourishing criminal enterprise. Call it Grand Theft Global Inc.