The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe the scale of cargo theft in

the European pharmaceutical supply chain in 2014. The study is based on a systemtheoretical

approach which emphasises a holistic rather than atomistic view. The

research in this paper is deductive and descriptive in its nature and aims to present a

current description of theft of pharmaceuticals in a European perspective. This paper’s

hypotheses on cargo theft have been developed from theories of criminology, for

applicable use, to strengthen the scientific field of logistics. A survey was conducted

in autumn 2014 whereby the respondents were asked to provide their opinions in

relation to eleven questions. The survey was sent out to all major players in the

European pharmaceutical sector – manufacturers and logistics providers specializing

in pharmaceuticals. The survey captured more or less 80 % of the European pharmaceutical

manufacturers' market share.We found that the current threats against European

pharmaceutical transport are small in relative occurrence terms (relatively few attacks on

a yearly basis compared to other product categories) but on an impact basis thefts of

pharmaceuticals place as one of the top targets (value wise) for criminals. This research

supports other sources that the current geographical hot spot for these thefts in Europe is

in Italy. The top risks are rated as either robbery or theft from vehicle at unsecure parking

areas. These two different modi operandi can be divided into one frequency related

threat (theft from unsecure parking) and one impact related risk (robbery).