Man caught trying to smuggle 121 stolen phones into Italy

Italian police have arrested a man found in possession of more than 100 stolen mobile phones that were hidden in tin foil, allegedly attempting to smuggle them into Italy.

The stash of phones, which included 71 iPhones and 29 Samsung devices, was discovered wrapped in foil packages inside a thick blanket in the suspect’s luggage as he attempted to enter Milan on board a train from Zurich, Switzerland.

Video footage released by police in Italy shows some of the packages containing three to four phones stacked together.

Police at customs in Chiasso, Switzerland, discovered that the phones had all been lost or stolen during Zurich’s Street Parade dance music festival, which was held in the Swiss city on August 10.

The suspect, a 40-year-old Romanian national, was arrested at the scene for receiving stolen goods, police said.

Efforts are now being made to return the phones to their rightful owners.

Meanwhile, in light of the current situation, phone snatching has become a problem across Europe, including in the UK.

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Last week, a man who used an electric motorbike to snatch 24 phones in one morning in London was jailed for two years. Sonny Stringer, 28, was called “London’s most notorious phone snatcher” by police at the time of his sentencing.