UK Gang sent "40,000 stolen phones" to HK and China
發佈日期: 2025-10-08 00:40
TVB News
London police say they have cracked an international phone smuggling gang that were stealing phones off people on the street and shipping them to Hong Kong.
The UK force estimate forty thousand phones have been smuggled into China in the last 12 months.
According to the Met, thieves mostly on bikes, are paid up to 300 pounds to take the phones from pedestrians.
These stolen mobiles can reportedly be sold in the mainland for more than ten times that figure because they are internet enabled.
In raids on nearly thirty properties police seized thousands of devices and arrested at least eighteen suspects on suspicion of handling stolen goods.
Most accused being part of the criminal network are Afghan or Bulgarian.
Some suspects had been under surveillance for months after police traced one stolen phone late last year and and saw a pattern.
In their largest ever crackdown on this type of crime, police say investigations led them to a box last December containing around one thousand iPhones bound for Hong Kong.
Most of them had been reported stolen.
Police were able to intercept further shipments for forensic evidence.
