Florida a hotbed of cargo theft

It's a multibillion-dollar industry. Those in the field work long hours in carefully chosen teams organized by well-known, influential leaders. It might be considered a growth industry, if it weren't illegal.

Cargo thefts — at times massive heists involving millions of dollars in stolen wares — are on the rise nationwide, and Florida has become a major hub for stolen goods and home to some of the nation's most daring thieves.

Experts struggle to define the true extent of cargo theft's impact nationally. But one thing is clear: Each year, hundreds of high-dollar heists are pulled, some with militarylike precision that resembles a scene from "Ocean's Eleven."

These thefts can damage businesses, threaten jobs and impact prices on the consumer level.

And according to local and national experts, the heists are not isolated incidents or even a trend. They're part of a cargo-theft culture, made up of interconnected groups of mostly professional criminals who are experts in their trade.

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It was also the biggest recorded heist in the state in five years, according to FreightWatch International, a cargo-security provider that tracks cargo-theft statistics. According to FreightWatch, 117 cargo-theft incidents were reported in the Sunshine State in 2010, and more than 500 in the past five years.

Experts say South Florida is where much of the cargo heisted on the Eastern Seaboard winds up — often in transit to Central or South America. It's also where many of the groups who perpetrate these crimes are based.

South Florida is also home to the Tactical Operations Multi-Agency Cargo Anti-Theft Squad, better known as TOMCATS, considered among the nation's elite task forces targeting cargo theft.

Based out of the Miami-Dade Police Department, TOMCATS represents a partnership of local, state and federal agencies, including the FBI, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Florida Highway Patrol and the Florida Department of Transportation, among others.

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Cargo ships and fuel!

Some info I found on answers.com about the amount of fuel cargo ships burn and how much it cost them a day!! Read the sentences in bold to get a quick understanding... - PUHA!!

This is usually measured in pounds of fuel per horsepower per hour. Roughly speaking, 0.25 lbs/hp/hr is considered to be pretty good, and 100,000 hp is a low-side estimate of an average container ship's horsepower. This then works out to 25,000 pounds of marine diesel fuel per hour. Marine diesel weighs about 7lbs/gallon, which gets us about 3600 gallons per burned per hour. A common cruise speed is 25 knots or 28.75mph. To make the math easier, let's call it 30mph. What this means is that for a container ship to travel 30 miles, it'll burn through 3600 gallons, which is the same as burning 120 gallons to go one mile .

There are 5280 feet in a mile, so if 120 gallons is good for 5280 feet, then one gallon is burned every 44 feet!!

Container ships don't burn quality marine diesel, they burn bunker fuel which is just a step above asphalt. It is so thick, it must be heated to extreme temperatures just to get it to flow into the engines. It is very cheap, literally pennies per gallon but very dirty, usually vented or exhausted under the ship so we don't see the pollutants destroying our environment.

Bunker fuel no longer is pennies per gallon. As of this date, 10/23/09, bunker fuel (380 Centistoke) is about $1.66 per gallon in Los Angeles. A 7000 TEU(twenty foot equivalent units) container ship will burn about 217 tons/day. This is about $99,000 per day in fuel costs. If oil goes to $150/bbl again, You can do the math.