Safe Harbor true story: What inspired the ITVX crime drama?

"Marco and Tobias are plucked from quiet obscurity and plunged headfirst into the chaos of organised crime when they cross paths with the Irish mob."

It concludes: "Leading the family's operations in Holland are Sloane (Charlie Murphy) and Farrell (Jack Gleeson) who enlist Tobias's and Marco's services to hack into the security system of Rotterdam harbour – Europe's largest shipping port – to secure undetected deliveries of drug shipments."

While not entirely based on a true story, this suspenseful thriller does have its roots in reality, with producer Femke Wolting citing a similar such incident that provided the initial inspiration for the series.

Here are the real events behind Safe Harbor, as the Belgian and Dutch co-production arrives in the UK via ITVX.

Safe Harbor true story: What inspired the ITV drama?

Safe Harbor is inspired by a true story in which an organised crime gang used computer hackers to smuggle its illegal drug supply into Europe.

Producer Femke Wolting told Variety that she "loved" the story and instantly saw potential for the idea to be turned into a "great international thriller series", before teaming up with Ozark co-creator Mark Williams.

"Femke gave me the blip of the idea of these tech guys caught in the middle of a drug war and I found this super interesting, even kind of funny, and that’s what I’m always looking for," the screenwriter added.

Although the duo have yet to identify specifically which case they were looking at, it's likely to have been an incident at Antwerp Harbour that occurred in June 2013, which Europol considered to be one of the first of its kind.

A report from the law enforcement agency revealed that an operation by Belgian and Dutch authorities arrested 12 suspects and seized 1,000kg of cocaine in addition to 1,000kg of heroin.

The group behind the smuggling had hacked into container terminals at the port, using key logging devices and trojan emails to gain access, allowing them to track their deliveries and intercept them before they could be detected.

Europol described the group as "professional and well-connected" and expressed concern at that time that their tactics may have been passed on to other criminal organisations.

This practice bears a striking resemblance to that which is depicted in Safe Harbor, which stars Alfie Allen as hacker Tobias, who is hired by an Irish gang to infiltrate the security system of Rotterdam harbour.

However, while real-life instances of such hacking may have been the inspiration for the ITV drama, they appear to have only been a launchpad for what is a largely fictional series.

Safe Harbor is coming soon to ITVX.

Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.