Drugs – Arms

And Now

Fuel

Trafficking??  

Fuel Theft Report Exposes "800 Pound Gorilla"

It funds illicit activities such as terrorism, transnational crime, militancy and insurgency. Left unchecked, it can contribute to endemic corruption, erode the rule of law and even disguise itself as a public good – an agent of social welfare. Moreover, it occurs on a scale approaching that of drug and arms trafficking. Nevertheless, this problem often receives scant attention from government authorities. What is this proverbial 800-pound gorilla? The theft of refined oil products. 

Ian Ralby: The problem of downstream oil theft manifests in a variety of ways. While the most widely acknowledged form is the illicit tapping of pipelines, theft also takes place all along the supply chain, from pre-processed oil on its way to refineries to the refineries themselves to storage tanks to trucks, trains and ships. Fuel can be transferred, for instance, from oceangoing tankers functioning as illegal “offshore fuel stations” to other vessels that will move the product on the black market. Port and industry facilities can be used as transshipment hubs for stolen fuel. 

Smuggling, usually involving neighboring states with differing fuel prices (often but not always the result of one country’s subsidies), gives rise to small- and large-scale criminal operations, the more extensive of which can convert a margin of pennies on the liter to many millions of dollars in profits. Adulteration, often in the form of “stretching” fuel with low-grade additives, and “laundering” fuel, usually diesel, to remove dye markers and thereby avoid taxes or tariffs and sell inferior product as higher-grade, can also result in significant profits. 

Ralby: The beneficiaries of downstream oil theft vary depending on the scale of the activity. At the smallest scale, individuals, families and local groups make money smuggling modest amounts of fuel across borders – often in jerry cans or small trucks – to take advantage of price differences. The same profit margins, however, often prove far more lucrative for organized criminal groups, who can move large quantities of fuel over land and sea, and for corrupt officials who can use their positions to engineer and cover up the misdirection of resources. At the most threatening level, profits from fuel theft are used to subsidize terrorist groups, violent insurgent groups, and criminal organizations that also traffic in drugs, weapons and human beings.

 DYI