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Law enforcement report they have dismantled an worldwide criminal network believed of illegally transporting as many as 40K stolen cell phones from the UK to the Far East over the past year.

Through what the Metropolitan Police calls the Britain's biggest operation against phone thefts, 18 suspects have been detained and in excess of 2K stolen devices found.

Police think the criminal group could be accountable for shipping as much as 50% of all handsets taken in London - where the majority of handsets are taken in the Britain.

The Probe Sparked by A Single Handset

The investigation was sparked after a target tracked a pilfered device in the past twelve months.

This took place on the day before Christmas and a victim digitally traced their stolen iPhone to a distribution center in the vicinity of the international hub, a law enforcement official revealed. The security there was willing to cooperate and they located the handset was in a crate, among nearly 900 additional handsets.

Police determined nearly every one of the devices had been snatched and in this instance were being shipped to Hong Kong. Additional consignments were then seized and police used scientific analysis on the parcels to locate two men.

Dramatic Apprehensions

When the probe focused on the pair of suspects, officer-recorded video captured police, some carrying electroshock weapons, executing a dramatic on-street stop of a car. Within, authorities discovered handsets encased in aluminum - a strategy by offenders to move pilfered phones without being noticed.

The individuals, both individuals from Afghanistan in their thirties, were charged with working together to handle pilfered items and working together to disguise or move stolen merchandise.

When they were stopped, multiple handsets were discovered in their car, and about another two thousand handsets were discovered at properties linked to them. Another individual, a individual in his late twenties Indian national, has afterwards been accused with the same offences.

Increasing Mobile Device Theft Issue

The number of handsets stolen in the capital has roughly grown by 200% in the last four years, from over 28K in two years ago, to 80,588 in the current year. Three-quarters of all the phones pilfered in the United Kingdom are now stolen in the capital.

Over twenty million people come to the metropolis annually and famous landmarks such as the West End and political hub are common for mobile device robbery and robbery.

An increasing desire for second-hand phones, both in the UK and abroad, is suspected to be a major driver behind the increase in robberies - and a lot of victims end up not retrieving their devices returned.

Rewarding Illegal Business

Reports indicate that various perpetrators are abandoning drug trafficking and moving on to the mobile device trade because it's more profitable, a government minister stated. When a device is taken and it's valued at several hundred, it's evident why criminals who are one step ahead and want to exploit recent criminal trends are turning to that world.

Senior officers said the illegal network particularly focused on Apple products because of their profitability internationally.

The investigation revealed street thieves were being paid approximately three hundred pounds per device - and police indicated stolen devices are being marketed in China for up to 4K GBP each, because they are internet-enabled and more attractive for those trying to bypass censorship.

Authorities' Measures

This is the largest crackdown on mobile phone theft and snatching in the UK in the most unprecedented series of actions the police force has ever undertaken, a senior commander declared. We have disrupted criminal networks at all levels from street-level thieves to worldwide illegal networks shipping many thousands of pilfered phones every year.

Many targets of phone theft have been skeptical of authorities - including the metropolitan force - for not doing enough.

Common grievances include police failing to assist when individuals inform about the exact real-time locations of their snatched handset to the authorities using location apps or comparable monitoring systems.

Individual Story

In the past twelve months, one victim had her handset pilfered on Oxford Street, in downtown. She explained she now feels on edge when visiting the metropolis.

It's quite unsettling visiting the area and obviously I'm uncertain who might be nearby. I'm anxious about my bag, I'm anxious about my handset, she explained. I think law enforcement could be implementing far greater - perhaps installing further CCTV surveillance or checking if possibilities exist they've got plainclothes agents in order to address this issue. I believe because of the number of incidents and the number of individuals getting in touch with them, they don't have the funding and capability to manage each situation.

In response, local authorities - which has utilized online networks with numerous clips of law enforcement addressing device robbers in {recent months|the past few months|the last several weeks