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London Has Become a Global Hub for Phone Theft
London has become a global hub for phone theft and now the Metropolitan Police are finally cracking down on the large-scale criminal networks behind it.
>The Phone Theft Epidemic and Criminal Network
Scale of the Problem: London recorded a record 80,000 stolen phones last year, earning an undesirable reputation as a European capital for the crime. Thieves, often masked and on e-bikes, have become increasingly brazen.
>Low Priority Shifts: For years, police largely dismissed phone theft as low-level street crime, leading to anger among victims who reported tracking data but saw no action.
>The Breakthrough: In December, police tracked a stolen iPhone to a warehouse near Heathrow Airport. They discovered boxes labeled as "batteries" containing nearly 1,000 stolen iPhones bound for Hong Kong, revealing the crime was on an "industrial scale."
The Global Black Market Connection
>Criminal Network: The investigation revealed a multilayered global criminal network involving middlemen who use secondhand phone shops as collection points.
>Middlemen & Raids: Recent raids targeted these middlemen, resulting in the seizure of approximately 2,000 stolen phones and £200,000 ($266,000) in cash.
>The China Link: Many stolen phones are shipped to China and Algeria. In China, the newest phones can be sold for up to $5,000, generating massive profits.
Why China? According to a cybersecurity specialist, it's easier to use stolen British phones in China because many of the country's network providers do not subscribe to the international blacklist that bars reported stolen devices.
>Evasion Tactics: When two suspected ringleaders were arrested, their car contained phones wrapped in aluminum foil—a tactic used to prevent the devices from transmitting tracking signals like "Find My iPhone." Police had previously observed the men buying almost 1.5 miles' worth of foil at Costco.
Police Response
>New Resources: Specialist investigators, normally focused on firearms and drug smuggling, were assigned to the case.
>Factors Behind the Epidemic: The investigation highlighted two contributing factors to the scale of the crisis:
1. Steep cuts to British police budgets in the 2010s, which reduced their ability to prioritize these crimes.
2. The existence of a lucrative black market abroad.
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