Swiss police have discovered a stash of 121 stolen phones hidden in aluminium foil as a man allegedly tried to smuggle them into Italy.
The 71 iPhones and 29 Samsung devices were discovered by police in Chiasso, Switzerland, individually wrapped in foil inside the suspect’s suitcase as he travelled by train from Zurich to Milan.
Italian police have released images of dozens of wrapped packages of phones.
The suspect, a 40-year-old Romanian whose name has not been released, was arrested on the spot.
All the phones are believed to have been stolen during Zurich’s Street Parade music festival on August 10 and efforts are now underway to return them to their rightful owners.
Swiss police have discovered a stash of 121 stolen phones hidden in aluminium foil when a man allegedly tried to smuggle them into Italy.
Police discovered 71 iPhones and 29 Samsung devices in Chiasso, Switzerland
All the phones are believed to have been stolen during Zurich’s Street Parade music festival on August 10.
This comes as phone theft has spread across Europe in recent months, including in the UK.
London in particular has been plagued by a terrifying wave of phone thefts, with criminals riding e-bikes using high-powered vehicles to steal devices and make a quick getaway.
Figures show that a mobile phone is reported stolen every six minutes in London.
Nearly 52,000 devices were stolen in the capital last year as criminals use violence and distraction techniques to trap their victims.
Criminals often target pedestrians in busy places, such as outside stations, shopping centres or concert halls, and usually approach from behind, meaning victims are unaware of how vulnerable their phone is until it’s too late.
Mobile phones stolen from the streets of the UK are said to be shipped in large numbers to warehouses in southern China, where they are stripped down into parts, reassembled and sold at bargain prices.
Insatiable demand for second-hand phones in the electronics hub of Shenzhen is being fuelled by devices stolen by gangsters targeting busy areas of Britain, including music festivals.
After being sent into the city by criminal accomplices who take advantage of its lax approach to enforcing stolen goods laws, the phones are sold second-hand if they can be unlocked and reset to factory settings.
If they can’t be sold whole, they are disassembled and the components (such as the screen, motherboard, and speaker) are used for repairs or even assembled into completely new phones.
Shenzhen is located in southern China, next to the border with Hong Kong. Known as the country’s “Silicon Valley” due to its specialization in electronics, it is also home to large retail stores selling used consumer goods.
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