I hear the occasional good news story about someone being able to find my iPhone, track the stolen device, and successfully recover it, but a new record was set when tracking one iPhone led to a gang suspected of smuggling up to 40,000 stolen phones into China.
The iPhone was tracked to an airport warehouse, where it was found in a box with 894 other mobile phones, leading to the arrest of 18 suspects and over 2,000 recovered phones…
BBC News Report.
Police say they have dismantled an international gang suspected of smuggling up to 40,000 stolen mobile phones from the UK to China over the past year.
Eighteen suspects have been arrested and more than 2,000 stolen devices discovered in what Metropolitan Police say is the UK’s biggest ever operation against phone theft. Police believe the gang is responsible for exporting half of all mobile phones stolen in London, where most mobile phones are photographed in the UK.
The story began when an iPhone was stolen and the victim tracked it to a warehouse near London’s Heathrow Airport. Police initially asked security teams on the scene to check where the device was found in a box with another 894 mobile phones.
This led to the interception of other shipments to the same address, allowing police to capture DNA on the packages and identify the two suspects. Police may have used some mixture of known associates and covert surveillance to target other properties. What we know for sure is that they raided 28 addresses. 2,000 devices were found there.
The report states that phone theft is so lucrative that many drug dealers have turned to this crime.
“We’re hearing that some criminals have stopped dealing with drugs and gone into the phone business because it’s more lucrative,” Police Minister Sarah Jones said. “When you steal a phone and it’s worth hundreds of pounds, you can understand why criminals looking to stay one step ahead and exploit new crimes are turning to that world.”
A senior official said the criminal gang specifically targeted Apple products due to their profitability overseas. A Met Police investigation has found street thieves are being paid up to £300 per handset. And Force said the stolen devices were being sold for up to £4,000 each, given that they are internet-enabled and attractive, making them more attractive to those looking to bypass censorship.
Thieves are often able to steal unlocked devices by robbing them on the street while people are using them.
Apple has added a series of theft protection features over the years, including Activation Lock and Stolen Device Protection. It’s not immediately clear how the gang overcame these protections, but one possibility could be to permanently keep the phone powered on and unlocked. In this case, this works because the value here is a foreign device that is not locked in the same way as a local device, rather than allowing it to work with the user’s own Apple ID.
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Image: BBC News
