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Police announce they have broken up an worldwide syndicate suspected of moving as many as 40K snatched cell phones from the United Kingdom to Mainland China in the last year.

In what the Metropolitan Police labels the Britain's largest ever operation against mobile device theft, a group of 18 have been taken into custody and in excess of two thousand pilfered phones found.

Authorities think the gang could be responsible for sending abroad up to 50% of all phones pilfered in the capital - a location where the bulk of handsets are stolen in the United Kingdom.

The Investigation Triggered by An Individual Phone

The probe was sparked after a target located a pilfered device the previous year.

This took place on the day before Christmas and a individual remotely followed their stolen iPhone to a distribution center close to London's major airport, an investigator stated. The security there was eager to assist and they located the handset was in a crate, among another 894 phones.

Officers found nearly every one of the handsets had been stolen and in this instance were being shipped to Hong Kong. Subsequent deliveries were then intercepted and police used scientific analysis on the packages to identify a pair of individuals.

Dramatic Detentions

As the investigation honed in on the pair of suspects, police bodycam footage captured police, some with Tasers drawn, carrying out a high-stakes roadside apprehension of a car. Within, authorities found phones wrapped in foil - a method by offenders to carry snatched handsets without detection.

The men, both individuals from Afghanistan in their 30s, were indicted with plotting to receive stolen goods and working together to conceal or remove criminal property.

Upon their apprehension, numerous devices were located in their car, and approximately an additional 2,000 phones were discovered at properties linked to them. A third man, a 29-year-old Indian national, has since been accused with the identical crimes.

Increasing Mobile Device Theft Issue

The number of phones stolen in the capital has nearly increased threefold in the last four years, from over 28K in two years ago, to over 80K in the current year. 75% of all the handsets stolen in the UK are now snatched in the capital.

More than 20 million people come to the capital each year and tourist hotspots such as the theatre district and Westminster are common for phone snatching and pilfering.

A growing desire for used devices, domestically and internationally, is believed to be a significant factor behind the rise in robberies - and numerous individuals ultimately failing to recover their devices again.

Rewarding Illegal Business

We're hearing that certain offenders are stopping dealing drugs and moving on to the phone business because it's more lucrative, an authority figure commented. When a device is taken and it's valued at several hundred, you can understand why offenders who are forward-thinking and aim to benefit from recent criminal trends are turning to that sector.

Senior officers stated the syndicate specifically targeted devices from Apple because of their financial gain internationally.

The probe found street thieves were being rewarded approximately £300 per device - and police indicated pilfered phones are being traded in the Far East for as much as 4K GBP per device, given they are connected and more appealing for those trying to bypass controls.

Authorities' Measures

This represents the biggest operation on mobile phone theft and theft in the Britain in the most remarkable collection of initiatives the police force has ever conducted, a high-ranking officer announced. We have broken up underground groups at all levels from street-level thieves to global criminal syndicates shipping numerous of pilfered phones annually.

Numerous targets of handset robbery have been doubtful of authorities - such as the city's police - for not doing enough.

Common grievances entail officers not helping when individuals inform about the exact real-time locations of their stolen phone to the authorities using location apps or equivalent location tools.

Victim Experience

Last year, a person had her handset stolen on a central London thoroughfare, in the heart of the city. She explained she now feels on edge when coming to the capital.

It's quite unsettling visiting the area and naturally I'm not sure who might be nearby. I'm anxious about my purse, I'm anxious about my handset, she explained. I think law enforcement should be doing far greater - possibly setting up further video monitoring or determining whether there's any way they've got some undercover police officers specifically to tackle this problem. I think owing to the figure of incidents and the figure of people getting in touch with them, they don't have the manpower and capability to manage every incident.

In response, local authorities - which has utilized digital channels with various videos of police addressing handset thieves in {recent months|the past few months|the last several weeks