We occasionally hear good news stories where someone is able to use Find My iPhone to track down and successfully recover a stolen device, but a new record was set when tracking a single iPhone led to a gang suspected of smuggling up to 40,000 stolen phones into China.
The iPhone was traced to an airport warehouse where it was found in a box containing 894 other phones, leading to the arrest of 18 suspects and the recovery of more than 2,000 phones.
BBC News Reports.
Police said they had dismantled an international gang suspected of smuggling up to 40,000 stolen mobile phones from the UK to China last year.
In what the Metropolitan Police say is the UK’s largest ever operation against phone theft, 18 suspects have been arrested and more than 2,000 stolen devices have been discovered. Police believe the gang may be responsible for exporting up to half of all phones stolen in London, with most mobile phones being seized 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 the security team on site to check the location, where the device was found in a box containing 894 other phones.
This led to the interception of other shipments to the same address, and police were able to capture DNA found on the parcels and identify two suspects. It is likely that police then used a combination of known accomplices and covert surveillance to target other properties; What we know for sure is that they raided 28 addresses, where 2,000 devices were found.
The report says that phone theft has now become so profitable that many drug dealers have turned to this crime.
Police Minister Sarah Jones said: “We hear that some criminals have stopped dealing drugs and moved into the phone trade because it is more profitable.” “If you steal a phone worth hundreds of pounds, you can understand why criminals who are one step ahead and want to exploit new crimes turn to this world.”
Senior officers said the criminal gang specifically targeted Apple products because of their profitability abroad. A Metropolitan Police investigation has discovered that street thieves are charging up to £300 per phone, and police said stolen devices are being sold in China for up to £4,000 each, as they are connected to the internet and more attractive to those trying to bypass censorship.
Thieves are often able to steal unlocked devices by snatching them up on the street while people are using them.
Apple has added a series of anti-theft features over the years, such as Activation Lock and Stolen Device Protection. It’s not immediately clear how the gang got around these protections, but one possibility is that they keep the phones permanently powered on and unlocked. This might work in this case, since the value here is a foreign device that is not locked in the same way as local devices, rather than being able to make it work using the user’s Apple ID.
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image: BBC News
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