Covid-19 vaccine shipment: A challenge worthy of a James Bond film

Interpol in December issued an orange alert notice warning that it expects a dramatic spurt in armed robberies and vandalism by anti-vaccine militants

In the coming months, billions of doses of coronavirus vaccines will be dispatched via truck, plane, ship and rail to hospitals, clinics and pharmacies around the world. With that cargo worth tens of billions of dollars — and some individual shipments valued as high as $70 million — one thing is certain: Crooks will try to steal some of it.

For freight haulers, the vaccine rollout poses “the biggest security challenge in a generation,” says Thorsten Neu­mann, chief executive officer of the European arm of the Transported Asset Protection Association, an industry group representing companies that carry precious goods.

Interpol in December