A TRUCK driver carrying a backpack stuffed with stolen phones has been arrested in the suburbs of Barcelona.
The 51-year-old Moroccan national was found with 153 stolen mobile phones, most of them iPhones, as well as eight tablets and ten laptops.
He was stopped in an industrial estate in Castellbisbal, about 30 minutes from the city centre, as he prepared to drive to Morocco.
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Five of the phones had already been reported stolen. The breakthrough came when one of the victims alerted police after tracking her phone as it moved south along the AP-7 motorway, enabling officers to locate and intercept the driver.
The suspect claimed he had simply been paid to transport the bag and said he did not know who had sent it or whether the devices were stolen.
He is due to appear in court on Thursday charged with receiving and transporting stolen goods.
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Police say the case forms part of a wider pattern. The confiscated haul is believed to be one of many similar shipments that leave Barcelona each week bound for Morocco – a route fuelled by high demand for electronics in North Africa.
Criminal networks exploit that demand, along with limited cross-border police coordination once stolen goods leave Spanish territory.
The arrest is the latest in a string of similar police busts.
Late last year officers recovered more than 1,000 stolen phones in Mataro, another Barcelona suburb that were also destined for Morocco.
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