Freight News, Logistics

TAPA commends Saxony’s crime-busters

[ February 6, 2020   //   Chris ]

The Transported Asset Protection Association (TAPA) has honoured the State Criminal Office of Saxony-Anhalt’s EU Project CARGO initiative for its contribution in reducing cargo thefts.

In recognition of the achievement of the project, TAPA president and chief executive Thorsten Neumann, presented a TAPA Excellence Award to Interior Minister Holger Stahlknecht, describing the initiative as “one of the best examples of collaboration in crime prevention.”

The EU-funded Project CARGO was launched in July 2018 – involving investigators from five EU Member States –to fight mobile organised criminals specialising in cargo theft. It targets truck ‘tarpaulin cutting’ crimes, one of the biggest causes of product losses from supply chains in Europe and has successfully dismantled crime groups across the continent and brought gang members to justice, thanks also to the proactive support of Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, and Eurojust, the EU agency dealing with judicial co-operation in criminal matters among agencies of the Member States.

In 2019, TAPA was the first industry association invited to participate in the programme, bringing the knowledge, expertise and intelligence of its hundreds of major global manufacturers and logistics service providers to support Project CARGO’s objectives.

Thorsten Neumann commented: “The organised crime groups it is targeting are known to be active in countries across Europe, regularly targeting trucks and facilities and, often, stealing goods worth over €1 million in a single attack. We are proud to be an active participate in Project CARGO and hope it will be given the funding to carry on its great work in the long-term because there is no question that it is delivering positive results. Project CARGO is a model we would like to see replicated in other major trading markets around the world.”

Tags: TAPA