Stolen Spanish School Laptops Traced to Moroccan Black Market, Exposing Cross-Border Tech Trafficking

Thanks to a programmed robot, an open source analysis specialist managed to geolocate these stolen computers in stores in Morocco. The research conducted by this analyst also made it possible to locate other computers, some of which were stolen in Penedes and others in institutes in southern Spain, in Andalusia. The expert was alerted to this theft by an article published in 2024 on the website ElCaso.com, a few days before the start of the school year. According to the article, four schools were victims of a theft of 500 devices, including 400 from the Les Vinyes Institute. The investigation opened by the Mossos to solve the case has not yielded results so far.

The stolen computers were put up for sale with the logo of the Generalitat de Catalunya. The advertisements broadcast on social networks confirm that these are the devices stolen from the institutes of Santa Coloma de Gramenet. Once stolen, the computers were packaged and transported by road to the south of the peninsula, from where they were transported to Morocco after passing through warehouses. The computers are then distributed on the black market where they are sold at half price. The analyst has passed on all this information to the police.

Thefts of devices in Spain destined for sale on the black market in Morocco are becoming recurrent. Recently, a young man whose mobile phone was stolen in Barcelona managed to locate it in a store in Morocco. With the collaboration of the Moroccan local police, he was able to recover the device.