Major Phone Smuggling  Gang Busted in London - video Dailymotion

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00:00It's being called London's largest mobile phone smuggling operation,

00:07a network so vast it helped earn the city the recent nickname,

00:10The Pickpocket Capital.

00:12But now the gang is in police custody.

00:14So how did it all fall apart?

00:20The story began when one victim managed to track his stolen phone,

00:23leading police to a large warehouse near Heathrow Airport

00:26used by the gang as a storage hub.

00:28When officers raided the site, they discovered a shipment

00:31containing more than 890 stolen devices.

00:39Investigators revealed the gang was smuggling around 40,000 phones abroad every year.

00:44The breakthrough prompted a city-wide crackdown,

00:47with London police raiding 28 properties across different districts

00:50and arresting 18 people of various nationalities,

00:53including Afghan, Indian and Bulgarian suspects.

00:58Initial findings showed that these stolen phones were being sold in Hong Kong

01:04for as much as $5,000 each,

01:07while each individual pickpocket earned about $400 per theft.

01:11Although I'm back then is driving around trying to help.

01:14I'm driving around trying to help.