According to the BBC, police announced that they have broken up an international gang suspected of smuggling 40,000 stolen mobile phones from the UK to China last year.
In what the Metropolitan Police said was the UK’s largest operation to date against phone theft, 18 suspects were arrested and more than 2,000 stolen devices were seized.
We’ve become afraid to use the phone on London’s streets these days. Thieves, especially in central London, arrive on bicycles or motorbikes and steal your phone, damaging the country’s image globally. Five out of every 30 foreigners visiting London have their phones stolen by bicycle thieves. There’s no point in reporting them to the police, because the police aren’t interested. Knowing this, we’re surprised by today’s operation. Perhaps the police deliberately didn’t intervene in these phone thefts and waited for the gang to grow.
There are 40,000 iPhones seized in the operation, but what about the other phones? Samsung, Google Pixel, Motorola, and others? We’d be glad if the police could explain these as well. How many people’s phones are stolen in London each year? We need an investigation into this.
Another strange point is why these stolen iPhones were sent to China. It would have been much wiser to send these phones to third-world countries rather than China. iPhones are already manufactured in China. China also has its own phones, like Honor and Huawei. This is a strange gang! We expect more clarification from the police.
