Prosecutors Allege Some of Seized Motorola Phones Stolen

MOSCOW, Oct 23 (Prime-Tass) -- A department of the Moscow Prosecutor's Office has initiated a criminal case into the theft of about 30,000 Motorola mobile handsets that were seized by the customs service earlier this year, a source with law enforcement bodies said, Vedomosti business daily reported Monday.

Following a request sent to mobile operators, prosecutors found that 30,000 Motorola handsets, which were supposed to have been destroyed by law enforcement bodies, are currently operating, the source said, the daily reported. Mobile operators found that the handsets were operating after checking their IMEI numbers. IMEI, or International Mobile Equipment Identity, is the unique number of each mobile handset.

The handsets were part of a batch of 167,500 phones seized on March 31. In April, the police said that they had destroyed 50,000 of the seized handsets because their electromagnetic radiation was twice the acceptable level.

The remaining 117,500 Motorola mobile handsets, seized from Russia?s largest mobile handset retailer Euroset, were returned to the retailer in August.

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Posted to the site on 23rd October 2006