Where do stolen motorcycles end up in Italy?
Why are motorcycles stolen?
Thefts are a plague afflicting all societies, and even in Italian cities, although safer compared to many other parts of the world, many are recorded.
When it comes to vehicles, motorcycles and scooters are among the most stolen, and unfortunately, in recent years we have seen a slight increase in the number of such crimes.
As one might expect, large cities like Naples, Milan, and Rome particularly suffer from this epidemic
The question might seem trivial, but in reality, the reasons that lead certain criminals to take scooters or motorcycles belonging to others vary and also change depending on the Italian regions.
Most crimes committed fall into 3 specific categories:
- Theft for resale abroad
- Theft for disassembly and sale of spare parts
- Theft for use in criminal activities
Of course, there is also a small percentage of thefts that do not fall into any of the three categories. These thefts are usually carried out by non-professional thieves who basically commit the theft for personal reasons and not to fuel other illegal activities.
But why motorcycles and not other vehicles? Obviously, this is a business that, in the case of resale of the vehicle as spare parts, can be extremely profitable.
Moreover, motorcycles and scooters are relatively easy to steal, they are light, simple to move, and take up little space in warehouses and containers for subsequent resale on the international black market.
Where do motorcycles stolen in Italy end up?
In this investigation, we will focus on the thefts mentioned in the first point:
Motorcycles 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 network behind motorcycle trafficking is well-structured and often overlaps with the routes of other goods illegally transported between states and continents. The main exit routes from the countries are via ships and trucks.
The Sea Route
Maritime transport is mainly exploited from the most important commercial ports in Europe, with containers shipped in various directions, mainly towards North Africa, Gulf of Guinea countries, and the Horn of Africa.
The Road Route
On the opposite side, There is significant heavy vehicle traffic transporting stolen motorcycles to Eastern European countries. Here the movement happens almost exclusively by road, thus with smaller quantities of stolen goods compared to maritime transport. In this scenario, recovering large amounts of stolen goods is extremely difficult for law enforcement.
But how does this supply chain work?
The motorcycle trafficking business - both by sea and land - is managed by a large, organized international system. This means there is a network of people spread across European and non-EU territories who collaborate to make the supply chain as fast and cost-effective as possible.
Given the scale of this criminal structure, the stolen vehicles must be valuable enough to cover both transportation expenses and the costs of the "workforce" that enables the supply chain to acquire the vehicles.
It is also necessary to consider the cost of corruption of authorities and port personnel which - as we will explain later - is of fundamental importance for this traffic.
This is why the vehicles that are illegally transported are almost always of medium-high value and mainly include large-displacement vehicles from recent years. The international trafficking of small, low-value vehicles is not widespread and remains a phenomenon destined for the internal black market, mainly for spare parts.
Many stolen motorcycles in our country are first stolen and then transported to collection centers in other cities. These are often located in warehouses away from prying eyes or on the outskirts of fairly busy port areas, so as not to attract attention.
Here the vehicles are tampered with and prepared for shipment.
Stolen motorcycles are often cloned, meaning the license plate number of an existing motorcycle is taken and replaced on the stolen motorcycle. In this way, the vehicle takes on the identity of the original motorcycle using stickers or forged license plates. In some cases, thieves may also replace the original motorcycle's documents to make the cloning even more credible.
From Italy to Africa
The stolen vehicles, whole or disassembled, are then taken to commercial hubs overlooking the Mediterranean, where they end up inside containers well hidden along with other types of regularly declared goods.
In Italy, the main ports for this type of traffic are Genoa and Naples, where law enforcement has repeatedly conducted stolen goods recovery operations, with the discovery of numerous transport vehicles and motorcycles.
In 2020, the Finance Police managed to recover dozens of stolen motorcycles at the Port of Genoa, packed in some containers and well hidden behind several tons of steel pipes. In the same operation, more than 200 engines and other fully dismantled motorcycles hidden in several other containers were recovered, complete with frames whose numbers had been completely erased. The containers in question were destined to reach West Africa.
In the same year, in May, the Naples Finance Police seized 14 large-displacement motorcycles that had been concealed inside a container departing from the port of Naples and headed to Tunisia. Thanks to cooperation with Tunisian authorities, the motorcycles were recovered and returned to their rightful 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 within the port. The motorcycles had been stolen from various Italian regions and were also to be shipped to African ports.
In a recent Interpol report, which often collaborates with Italian authorities in major international operations against illegal trafficking, it has been confirmed that the transport of stolen goods departing from Mediterranean ports in 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 different countries in the sub-Saharan area.
To understand how difficult it is to recover these vehicles, just consider that about 90% of goods transported worldwide travel by sea and, on average, only 2% of containers are physically inspected at destination ports.
This is an important fact that helps us understand how the international racket of stolen motorcycles can be successfully conducted. Especially in countries like those in Africa, where corruption among authorities and transport company personnel is widespread, facilitating the undisturbed passage of thousands of stolen vehicles every year.
According to the Interpol report, the African ports where most of the vehicles stolen in Europe are unloaded are Mombasa in Kenya and Dakar in Senegal.
Who is behind this "criminal machine"? Data collected over the years by Interpol speak of numerous actors in the illegal goods trafficking chain, ranging from well-known African armed groups and terrorists to the involvement of businessmen and public officials both in Europe and Africa.
The Italian mafia also plays an important role (Interpol cites the Ndrangheta) and although its main activity is drug trafficking, it often gets involved in other types of illegal transport including stolen cars and motorcycles.
Operations to recover illegally transported goods are becoming increasingly international, and law enforcement agencies from various European countries are currently working together to dismantle often interconnected trafficking. It is not uncommon for stolen vehicles and goods from Northern or Western Europe to also depart from Mediterranean ports; such internationalization of crime requires dialogue among police activities across the entire European territory, as happened with theoperation "Carback" conducted by Interpol in 2022. During this international mobilization of police forces at ports in 77 countries, 1,121 stolen cars and 64 motorcycles were recovered, with 222 arrests.
From Italy to Eastern Europe
There is also a second international "route" for stolen motorcycles, which takes place overland to Eastern countries and follows dynamics quite different from sea transport of stolen goods.
Vehicles stolen from owners in Italian cities are taken to collection centers where they are also dismantled or cloned, and transported eastward by truck.
After a wave of thefts recorded in the 2010/20 decade, trafficking to the East is slowly decreasing but remains a widespread problem throughout European territory. Unlike sea transport to Africa, vehicles traveling by road easily get lost in a dense and always busy highway network.
The only points where such stolen goods can be recovered are the border controls that separate Schengen area countries (where there is no need to show a passport or undergo checks) from non-European countries. Ukraine in particular is an important hub for this type of activity because stolen vehicles are collected here and then end up in Russia and countries in Western Asia, much farther from the 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 dismantling the Sale of stolen motorcycles in Italy through websites with Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Czech, Romanian domains. On these web pages, photos and details of motorcycles still with Italian license plates could be found, often sold without documents or with forged registration papers.
After an international joint investigation between Italian and foreign police forces, and also thanks to the mobilization of the owners themselves who, through social media, managed to gather information and conduct searches, many motorcycles were recovered between 2014 and 2020, and several people were arrested.
In 2022, another gang was dismantled near Milan; their activity consisted of stealing motorcycles that were kept in Italy but sold online worldwide, mainly to Eastern Europe and Africa. Once the stolen goods were sold, shipping was organized by hiding the vehicles in containers and trucks.
With improved efficiency of online investigations by European police, 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, instead, UNESCO sources confirm that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is increasing the trafficking of illicit goods from Europe to the states bordering Russia., mainly concerning medicine, tobacco, and drugs, but also various stolen goods that - due to the confusion created by the war - manage to find new ways to pass through borders undisturbed. Stolen motorcycles and cars from our area could therefore end up fueling the illegal Balkan trafficking again.
Why are stolen motorcycles sold in Africa and Eastern Europe?
We can answer this question with a series of reasons that help us understand the phenomenon. Some explanations have already been illustrated in the text, such as the lack of border controls and the ease with which port staff and authorities can be corrupted.
In countries poorer than Europe, Crime can exploit the need for money among people who perform inadequately paid jobs. Both transport company workers and local police officers often "top up" their income with borderline legal activities and are inclined to accept money to avoid carrying out the necessary checks, which increases the spread of petty corruption.
This is possible because the state structure of developing countries does not always control the money circulating irregularly, and corruption is a hard-to-trace phenomenon that affects even the upper levels of society such as politics and multinationals.
One consideration to make, which also explains why stolen motorcycles can easily circulate in some countries, is that road controls are much less strict and the authorities' ability to verify the authenticity of vehicle documents is far lower.
In Central African states, where many of these large-displacement motorcycles are sold, many vehicles circulate even without license plates, inspections, or documents, with a very low risk of being seized.
How is this trafficking supported?
Economically, the stolen vehicle trafficking is a money machine generating hundreds of millions of Euros, but it is very difficult to compile precise economic statistics.
Motorcycles are only a small percentage of criminal activities related to vehicles (mainly focused on car theft) but they contribute to the business and fill the pockets of several organized groups that are quite successful in Italy.
Unfortunately, just over 1/3 of two-wheeled vehicles are recovered by the Law Enforcement.. According to the 2022 ministry data, referring to the whole of 2021, the scooters and motorcycles returned to their rightful owners were 9,678, just 36% of the total stolen vehicles, but the proportion drops to 1/4 in the case of motorcycles taken outside European borders.
The ones who profit the most in this supply chain are mainly the large international criminal organizations, which manage a huge number of illegal activities and represent the top of the pyramid.
Those at the base, instead, are the so-called "foot soldiers," the last link in the chain 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) in reality, they pocket 1.25% of the vehicle's value. This means that for a motorcycle or car valued at 20,000 euros, what the thief actually earns is about 250 euros.
And who buys the stolen motorcycles?
In this case, the sale can have different channels and levels. Regarding transport from Europe to Africa, it often involves sales between local criminals who sell the stolen vehicle and those who handle transport and insertion into the foreign black market.
In this case the first sale to the transporter takes place at about 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 that the specific motorcycle or car would have had in Europe.
International police operations continue both in port and border controls and in monitoring online criminal activities.
Alongside a constant increase in efficiency in the fight against stolen vehicle trafficking, there is also renewed "creativity" from criminal organizations which - as Interpol highlights in its report - are beginning to use various channels such as fishing boats, ferries, and cruise ships.
SOURCES USED FOR THE RESEARCH
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