Tax reasons. What you typically see isn't just any warehouse but a "freeport" -- a warehouse that's outside a country's tax jurisdiction. The idea makes sense

Tax reasons. What you typically see isn't just any warehouse but a "freeport" -- a warehouse that's outside a country's tax jurisdiction. The idea makes sense: you ship something (some part of a jet engine) from the US to Nigeria, and the trip involves a cargo plane change in Geneva. You don't want to pay import duty to switzerland just to ship it out a few days later so you store it in a guarded warehouse for those days and legally it never enters the country. Then some folks got the idea that they could simply store other expensive assets in such a place. I assume most of it is for money laundering and/or big transactions for illegal goods.