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Law enforcement state they have disrupted an global criminal network alleged of illegally transporting approximately forty thousand stolen cell phones from the UK to the Far East over the past year.

As part of what London's police force labels the UK's most significant initiative against handset robberies, a group of 18 have been taken into custody and over 2,000 pilfered phones found.

Authorities suspect the gang could be responsible for shipping approximately 50% of all mobile devices pilfered in the city - in which the majority of handsets are stolen in the United Kingdom.

The Inquiry Sparked by An Individual Device

The inquiry was triggered after a victim tracked a snatched handset in the past twelve months.

This took place on the day before Christmas and a individual digitally traced their pilfered Apple device to a storage facility near Heathrow Airport, a law enforcement official explained. The guards there was willing to help out and they found the handset was in a crate, among another 894 phones.

Law enforcement discovered nearly every one of the devices had been snatched and in this instance were being sent to the Asian financial hub. Further shipments were then intercepted and police used scientific analysis on the packages to locate two men.

Intense Apprehensions

Once authorities targeted the individuals, officer-recorded video captured law enforcement, some with Tasers drawn, conducting a intense on-street stop of a vehicle. In the vehicle, police located handsets covered in metallic wrap - a method by perpetrators to move snatched handsets undetected.

The suspects, the two Afghan nationals in their mid-adulthood, were indicted with working together to handle pilfered items and conspiring to hide or transfer criminal property.

During their detention, dozens of phones were found in their automobile, and approximately another two thousand handsets were discovered at properties linked to them. Another individual, a twenty-nine-year-old citizen of India, has subsequently been charged with the equivalent charges.

Growing Mobile Device Theft Epidemic

The number of mobile devices stolen in the city has roughly grown by 200% in the past four years, from over 28K in two years ago, to over 80K in the current year. The majority of all the mobile devices pilfered in the UK are now snatched in the city.

More than twenty million people travel to the capital every year and tourist hotspots such as the shopping area and political hub are common for mobile device robbery and pilfering.

A rising demand for used devices, both in the UK and abroad, is believed to be a key reason underlying the rise in robberies - and numerous victims end up not retrieving their handsets back.

Rewarding Criminal Enterprise

We're hearing that certain offenders are abandoning drug trafficking and transitioning to the phone business because it's more lucrative, an authority figure stated. When a device is taken and it's priced in the hundreds, it's evident why offenders who are forward-thinking and seek to capitalize on recent criminal trends are adopting that sector.

High-ranking officials explained the criminal gang particularly focused on iPhones because of their monetary value overseas.

The inquiry found street thieves were being paid approximately 300 GBP per device - and authorities stated stolen devices are being sold in Mainland China for as much as 4K GBP each, given they are internet-enabled and more desirable for those attempting to circumvent restrictions.

Police Response

This represents the biggest operation on handset robbery and theft in the Britain in the most extraordinary set of operations authorities has ever conducted, a top official stated. We have broken up illegal organizations at each tier from low-tier offenders to worldwide illegal networks sending abroad tens of thousands of snatched handsets every year.

Many individuals of handset robbery have been critical of police - such as local law enforcement - for inadequate response.

Frequent complaints involve police not helping when targets report the precise current positions of their snatched handset to the law enforcement using tracking services or similar tracking services.

Victim Experience

In the past twelve months, an individual had her handset snatched on a central London thoroughfare, in downtown. She stated she now feels uneasy when coming to the capital.

It's really unnerving being here and obviously I'm not sure who might be nearby. I'm worried about my bag, I'm anxious about my handset, she explained. In my opinion authorities ought to be undertaking a lot more - maybe installing additional video monitoring or determining whether there's any way they have some undercover police officers just to address this challenge. In my opinion owing to the figure of cases and the figure of victims contacting with them, they lack the manpower and capability to manage each situation.

For its part, the metropolitan police - which has taken to online networks with various videos of law enforcement tackling phone snatchers in {recent months|the past few months|the last several weeks