Fraud type · Drug smuggling

Drug smuggling in road transport: the client who does not exist and the driver who takes the risk

When a lorry carrying drugs is stopped, the driver stands next to the cab and the haulier’s name is on the door. The real client is nowhere to be found. That is how the system is built.

SafetyBizz Knowledge base · updated 21 October 2026 · 7 min read · NL · FR · DE · SV

How do criminals use hauliers to move drugs?

Short answer: they place an ordinary transport order, through a freight exchange, a broker or directly, in the name of a company that does not lead back to them. The load contains a cover: straw, vegetables, pallets of building materials. The haulier and the driver drive in good faith. When the lorry is checked, they are the first and often the only point of contact.

According to the Dutch police, a large share of the drugs entering the Netherlands is moved on to the rest of Europe by lorry. Some of it travels with criminals’ own transport companies, but ordinary hauliers are also used without knowing it.

Which variants do you come across?

• The ghost client: a newly incorporated company or an empty shell, with a tidy website and a good price. After the trip it cannot be found. See The fake client.
• The cloned shipper: the order comes in the name of a well-known trading company, but through a look-alike email address and a different phone number. See Smuggling in your load.
• The organisation’s own haulage firm: a carrier that runs normally on paper, with regular loads as cover. Dutch police shut down such a company in Zeewolde; the director was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison.
• The changed unloading address: on the road, the "client" calls to say the load must be delivered to a different address, or that an extra stop has been added.
• The approached driver: drivers are approached at truck parks with an offer for "a little extra". Whoever says yes finds it hard to get out again.

What does it cost me as a haulier?

Your truck and trailer are seized, sometimes for months. Your driver is detained, often abroad. Your company becomes part of a criminal investigation, your licence and insurance may be at risk, and shippers walk away. Even if you are cleared in the end, you have lost those months.

Which red flags should a haulier know?

• A new client with a strikingly high pricefor an ordinary trip.
• The client wants your company in particularbut asks few questions about terms or insurance.
• Loading or unloading address does not fit the cargofor example chilled goods to a warehouse without refrigeration, or a private address.
• Changes on the roada different unloading address, an extra stop or "just pick up one more pallet".
• Cheap cargo, expensive transportstraw, sand or cheap vegetables over a long distance.
• Contact only by mobile or messaging appsand an email address that does not match the register or the website.
• The company is young or recently changed directorsor was dormant for years.
• Cash payment or prepayment without being askedor payment from an account not in the company’s name.
• The driver may not be present during loadingor gets a sealed trailer without being able to check the load.

One red flag is not proof. If you see two or more, stop and check further first.

How do I check a new client before I drive?

1. Look the company up in the official register and check incorporation, activity, directors and recent changes.
2. Call the landline from the register or the website and ask whether this order really comes from them.
3. Compare the email address and domain with the official website.
4. Check that the loading and unloading address fit the company and the cargo, for example on a map or street view.
5. Agree that the driver is present during loading and may compare the load with the CMR.
6. Accept no changes on the road without written confirmation from the known contact, and report them to your planning.
7. Instruct your drivers: no extra loads, no unknown stops, and always report it if someone approaches them.

What do I do if I am in doubt or it goes wrong?

• In doubt beforehand: do not run the order and ask for confirmation through the company’s official number.
• In doubt on the road: have the driver stop at a safe, public place and call the police. Do not let him open the load himself.
• Keep all messages, the order, the CMR and the details of whoever called or emailed.
• Report a suspicious client to the freight exchange and your trade association.

Frequently asked questions

Read also

• Drug smuggling in sea freight
• Drug smuggling in air cargo
• The fake client
• Checking a haulier

Free checks

• Check a VAT number
• Check an EORI number
• Check an IBAN
• Check a container number

Sources: NOS: how criminals use lorries for drug trafficking (November 2020); Omroep Brabant: Dutch driver sentenced to six years in France for 240 kilos of cocaine (October 2026).

This page is general information and not legal advice.