Europol has issued a brand new warning relating to an rising development in organized crime involving using Bluetooth trackers.
Initially designed to assist people find private gadgets and forestall automobile theft, these small gadgets are being more and more exploited by criminals for illicit actions.
In line with a brand new weblog publish revealed by Europol at this time, criminals are leveraging this expertise to geolocate unlawful commodities, with nearly all of reported instances involving cocaine smuggling.
The trackers have been continuously found alongside massive cocaine shipments, notably in container shipments of meals merchandise and hidden in sea chests inside sea vessels.
Europol confirmed that drug traffickers are utilizing Bluetooth trackers to hint the transit of illicit cargo after it arrives in ports. The expertise permits them to observe the motion of the cargo by highway in the direction of storage places in European markets, and it’s possible that the trackers are additionally employed to find illicit shipments upon arrival in ports.
In response to this rising concern, Europol has issued an early warning notification to all EU Member States, cautioning them concerning the misuse of Bluetooth tracker expertise by organized crime teams.
In line with the doc, Bluetooth trackers are valued by criminals for his or her smaller measurement, affordability, longer battery life (roughly one to 2 years) and waterproof options in comparison with conventional GPS trackers.
Whereas Bluetooth trackers are usually not efficient when out of vary of paired gadgets, they provide a gorgeous answer for criminals in search of to trace and find illicit commodities.
Europol acknowledged that Bluetooth trackers have been utilized in a couple of instances associated to organized property crime and migrant smuggling, however the predominant concern stays their affiliation with drug trafficking.
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As of now, there are not any indications that Bluetooth trackers are getting used to geolocate shipments at sea. Europol means that, attributable to technological constraints, GPS expertise is extra appropriate for this objective.
Nonetheless, the notification did underscore the potential for combining GPS gadgets and Bluetooth trackers for extra dependable geolocation.
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