TWO suspects were arrested by the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) for allegedly purchasing stolen high-end cellphones, mainly iPhones, kept in a rented room in a building along Leon Kilat Street in Barangay Pahina Central, Cebu City.
Police Colonel George Ylanan, city police chief, said authorities are still searching for other individuals involved, many of whom are believed to operate outside the city.
Ylanan described the suspects as the source of stolen expensive cellphones, which were also sold at a downtown mall in Cebu City.
He added that these individuals possess technical skills and extensive knowledge capable of bypassing Apple’s firewall, skills that ordinary technicians do not have.
Investigations by the City Intelligence Unit and City Investigation and Detection Unit of the CCPO revealed that the suspects purchased iPhones for around P5,000 per unit and then sold them at the mall, presenting them as brand new.
“Ang atong nadakpan mao gyud ni sila ang gamot gyud ni. Sila ang hagbonganan sa mga kinawat nya pulos mga iPhone ang ilang paliton. Kung imong i-analyze, diba iPhone ang ilang gi target, kini man gud ang iPhone mao ni pinaka lisud og firewall. Lisud kaayo ni i-hack. Naa ni silay technical expertise nga nganong iPhone nga pwede man og Android lang. Tan-awa tanan puro iPhone," said Ylanan.
(The ones we caught are really the main culprits. They only buy iPhones. If you analyze it, they target iPhones because it has the toughest firewall and is very hard to hack. They have the technical expertise; that’s why it’s iPhones and not Androids. Look, all of them are iPhones.)
CCPO confiscated a total of 154 cellphones from three rooms in Leon Kilat Street. At the time of reporting, nearly 100 of these iPhones have been positively identified by their owners.
All complainants were able to locate their lost iPhones, indicating that almost all the stolen items were sold through these suspects.
Some gadgets that had been missing for up to four months could no longer be accessed by their owners because the devices were reprogrammed by the suspects.
One complainant told CCPO that he spotted his iPhone 16 Pro among the recovered items on social media.
He said his carefully kept cellphone went missing the previous week at a large mall in South Road Properties, after being jostled in a crowd.
He expressed gratitude to the police for recovering his device and vowed to be more cautious in crowded areas.
Authorities continue to search for the two remaining suspects, who are still at large, with efforts underway to file charges against them.
The investigation also includes the person renting the room, who also runs a cellphone repair shop, as CCPO believes he may have information about the stolen items.
He has already been issued a show-cause order by the Business Permit and Licensing Office after it was determined that his business operated without a permit. (AYB)