How Smuggling Networks Use the Same Tactics as Sanctions Evaders

The Problem Is the Same, So the Playbook Is the Same A vessel carrying crude loaded at a sanctioned terminal and a vessel carrying cocaine loaded off a Colombian beach are solving an identical problem. Both need to move cargo across international waters and into a port without the voyage being reconstructed afterward.

Going dark at the point where the record would matter. Transferring cargo at sea so the vessel entering the controlled port is not the vessel that loaded it. Changing flag, name, and MMSI so the history does not follow the hull. Declaring an origin that is not where the cargo actually came from.

One Windward counter-narcotics assessment described a vessel as a textbook case of exploiting phantom registries, deliberate AIS manipulation, and corporate opacity to move illicit cargo across continents while evading detection. Every element of that sentence would be equally at home in a sanctions evasion report. The only thing that differed was what was in the hold.

The compliance community and the enforcement community have historically treated these as separate problems with separate tooling. At the vessel behavior layer, they are one problem.

This story was originally published by Hellenic Shipping News. Read the full story at Hellenic Shipping News →