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They did do an inspection and sealed the containers right after. The "swap" to painted rocks happened only after the inspection. Supposedly, they also had an insurance until it turned out 6 out of 7 of their insurance contracts were forged.

To me this screams like an inside job. How is it possible that the thieves can get into the ships at night, spend hours hauling copper and paving stones and nobody notices.

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I would guess it would be easier to load up the bogey container with rocks, and since the authorities are in it, get a copy of the seal affixed to the bogey container (the article even mentions fake seals).

The article also mentions shipment. Does it mean the containers were already on the ships, or just on its way on the back of a truck? It would be "easy" for the truck full of copper in a sealed container to leave a place, and a different truck to show up at the port with a container with a label that says "Copper for Mercuria, destination Qinqdao" and a "good" seal. Or if it's all at the port, just pay off the crane operator to load up your bogey onto the ship, and load up the real stuff onto your truck.

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