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Law enforcement state they have broken up an international criminal network suspected of moving up to forty thousand snatched handsets from the UK to Mainland China in the last year.

As part of what the Metropolitan Police describes as the Britain's biggest initiative against mobile device theft, a group of 18 have been arrested and over two thousand snatched handsets discovered.

Police believe the gang could be culpable for shipping up to one half of all mobile devices stolen in the capital - in which the bulk of phones are taken in the Britain.

The Probe Sparked by One Device

The investigation was initiated after a target located a pilfered device in the past twelve months.

This took place on the day before Christmas and a person digitally traced their stolen iPhone to a warehouse near London's major airport, an investigator explained. The security there was willing to help out and they discovered the handset was in a box, among 894 other devices.

Police found the vast majority of the handsets had been pilfered and in this instance were being shipped to the special administrative region. Further shipments were then intercepted and officers used investigative techniques on the boxes to locate a pair of individuals.

High-Stakes Arrests

When the probe focused on the pair of suspects, police bodycam footage documented officers, some with Tasers drawn, carrying out a dramatic roadside apprehension of a automobile. Within, officers discovered phones encased in aluminum - a method by perpetrators to move stolen devices undetected.

The individuals, each Afghan nationals in their thirties, were indicted with conspiring to receive stolen goods and plotting to conceal or remove criminal property.

During their detention, dozens of phones were located in their vehicle, and approximately 2,000 more devices were uncovered at addresses linked to them. One more suspect, a 29-year-old person from India, has afterwards been accused with the identical crimes.

Increasing Handset Robbery Problem

The figure of phones snatched in the city has roughly grown by 200% in the past four years, from twenty-eight thousand six hundred nine in the year 2020, to 80,588 in this year. The majority of all the handsets stolen in the Britain are now snatched in the city.

Over 20 million people visit the capital every year and famous landmarks such as the theatre district and government district are common for phone snatching and theft.

A growing need for pre-owned handsets, both in the UK and abroad, is thought to be a significant factor for the increase in robberies - and a lot of individuals eventually not retrieving their handsets again.

Lucrative Illegal Business

Authorities note that certain offenders are abandoning drug trafficking and shifting toward the mobile device trade because it's more profitable, a policing official commented. Upon snatching a handset and it's priced in the hundreds, you can understand why criminals who are one step ahead and seek to capitalize on emerging illegal activities are turning to that world.

Top authorities said the criminal gang deliberately chose iPhones because of their monetary value internationally.

The probe revealed petty offenders were being compensated up to 300 GBP per device - and police said stolen devices are being sold in the Far East for approximately four thousand pounds per device, because they are online-capable and more attractive for those attempting to circumvent censorship.

Law Enforcement Action

This represents the biggest operation on handset robbery and robbery in the UK in the most unprecedented series of actions law enforcement has ever executed, a top official stated. We have broken up underground groups at all levels from low-tier offenders to global criminal syndicates exporting numerous of pilfered phones every year.

Many individuals of handset robbery have been critical of authorities - including local law enforcement - for not doing enough.

Regular criticisms entail police failing to assist when individuals inform about the exact real-time locations of their pilfered device to the police using Apple's Find My iPhone or equivalent location tools.

Victim Experience

Last year, one victim had her handset pilfered on a central London thoroughfare, in downtown. She stated she now feels anxious when traveling to the city.

It's very disturbing being here and clearly I don't know the people surrounding me. I'm worried about my belongings, I'm concerned about my handset, she explained. I think the police could be implementing far greater - possibly installing further security cameras or checking if possibilities exist they employ plainclothes agents in order to address this challenge. I believe owing to the figure of cases and the figure of victims reaching out with them, they lack the resources and ability to handle every incident.

In response, local authorities - which has employed social media platforms with multiple recordings of law enforcement tackling device robbers in {recent months|the past few months|the last several weeks