🔗 Share this article

Law enforcement report they have dismantled an worldwide syndicate alleged of illegally transporting up to forty thousand stolen cell phones from the UK to China over the past year.

In what the Metropolitan Police describes as the United Kingdom's biggest initiative against phone thefts, eighteen individuals have been taken into custody and over 2K stolen devices located.

Law enforcement believe the syndicate could be accountable for sending abroad approximately one half of all phones pilfered in the city - a location where the bulk of phones are stolen in the UK.

The Investigation Initiated by A Single Phone

The probe was sparked after a victim located a pilfered device in the past twelve months.

The incident occurred on December 24th and a individual digitally traced their snatched smartphone to a warehouse in the vicinity of Heathrow Airport, a detective stated. The guards there was willing to cooperate and they discovered the phone was in a container, together with 894 other devices.

Officers determined the vast majority of the handsets had been snatched and in this case were being sent to Hong Kong. Subsequent deliveries were then intercepted and police used scientific analysis on the parcels to identify a pair of individuals.

Dramatic Arrests

Once authorities targeted the pair of suspects, officer-recorded video showed law enforcement, some armed with stun guns, carrying out a dramatic roadside apprehension of a vehicle. Within, authorities located phones encased in aluminum - an attempt by offenders to carry stolen devices without being noticed.

The individuals, each citizens of Afghanistan in their 30s, were indicted with conspiring to accept snatched property and working together to disguise or move criminal property.

When they were stopped, multiple handsets were found in their car, and roughly 2,000 more devices were discovered at addresses associated with them. Another individual, a 29-year-old person from India, has since been accused with the identical crimes.

Rising Handset Robbery Problem

The figure of mobile devices stolen in the capital has almost tripled in the last four years, from over 28K in 2020, to over 80K in the current year. 75% of all the handsets pilfered in the Britain are now taken in London.

More than 20M people come to the capital each year and tourist hotspots such as the shopping area and government district are common for handset theft and pilfering.

A rising demand for pre-owned handsets, locally and overseas, is suspected to be a major driver behind the surge in thefts - and a lot of victims end up failing to recover their phones back.

Rewarding Criminal Enterprise

Authorities note that certain offenders are abandoning drug trafficking and moving on to the handset industry because it's more profitable, a government minister commented. Upon snatching a handset and it's worth hundreds of pounds, it's evident why perpetrators who are forward-thinking and want to exploit emerging illegal activities are adopting that sector.

Top authorities said the illegal network deliberately chose devices from Apple because of their financial gain overseas.

The probe found low-level criminals were being paid up to 300 GBP per phone - and police said snatched handsets are being sold in Mainland China for up to 4K GBP each, since they are connected and more attractive for those trying to bypass restrictions.

Authorities' Measures

This marks the most significant effort on mobile phone theft and snatching in the Britain in the most unprecedented series of actions law enforcement has ever undertaken, a senior commander declared. We have broken up underground groups at each tier from street-level thieves to worldwide illegal networks sending abroad numerous of stolen devices annually.

A lot of victims of phone theft have been skeptical of police - including local law enforcement - for not doing enough.

Regular criticisms involve police failing to assist when targets report the immediate whereabouts of their stolen phone to the law enforcement using Apple's Find My iPhone or similar tracking services.

Victim Experience

Last year, one victim had her phone pilfered on a central London thoroughfare, in the heart of the city. She stated she now feels uneasy when visiting the metropolis.

It's quite unsettling coming to this location and naturally I don't know the people surrounding me. I'm anxious about my purse, I'm worried about my phone, she revealed. I think authorities could be implementing a lot more - perhaps establishing further security cameras or checking if there are methods they employ plainclothes agents in order to address this challenge. I think because of the quantity of occurrences and the quantity of individuals reaching out with them, they lack the manpower and ability to handle all these cases.

In response, the metropolitan police - which has utilized social media platforms with numerous clips of law enforcement addressing device robbers in {recent months|the past few months|the last several weeks