Hahhaa I'm glad you liked the topic.
Yeah, I think it would be easy enough to detect smuggling ships, mainly because their codes may give them away.
Then again, in the world I'm writing it's set after a massive war/ failed occupation and the people are dragging themselves out of the ruins of their worlds, so most of their data has been lost, and most ships are chop jobs; combinations of multiple broken down wrecks, so identifying them would be harder.
The way I imagine the world, it's like Europe after WW1 or WW2, maybe closer to WW1 though.
Also, the fall of the Western Roman empire too, as I think the idea of all government and structure disappearing is an interesting idea to me, and a cool place to set a science fiction story.
With little to no structure, people are kind of left to their own devices and with that the crime rate raises and gangs form as a way of protecting and governing themselves. I imagine with no government or protection people would devolve into tribes and clans, big families would take over plots of land, and anyone without a large circle of family and friends would most likely form communities and compounds with people from their street or estate; maybe estates would even build ramshackled walls to block immediate access.
It's an interesting idea to me, and I've been having some fun exploring this idea in the stories and notes.
Also, sorry about the delayed response.
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Ah, yes, I didn't think of this. There would be so many ships out there, you could easily disguise instead of hide. Interesting world, and there's a wealth of historical information that you can draw from as well.