Authorities in the UK have started arresting Rolex Ripper gangs terrorizing the streets of London.
According to Mail Online, Scotland Yard has deployed a squad of undercover officers posing as victims to capture the so-called Rolex Rippers responsible for a spate of violent watch muggings across the capital.
Undercover officers were sent to streets known to be hotspots late at night where they quickly fell prey to robbers, who were unaware that they were the real targets.
The innovative tactic is said to have led successful arrest.
Over two operations, which ran from October 2022 to December 2022 and March 2023 to October 2023 respectively, 27 people were arrested and subsequently charged.
Of these, 21 were convicted. Fourteen have been sentenced to a total of 26 years in prison.
Some of the convicted thieves include two Nigerians; Emmanuel Sejilola and Damilola Odunoren.
Between July 2022 to July 2023, watch theft in the boroughs of Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, and Hammersmith and Fulham plummeted by 50 percent, dropping from 113 to 55.
The secret operation was launched after a spate of terrifying watch robberies.
In the six months to October 2022, there were more than 300 watches stolen in the West End alone worth a total of nearly £4million.
In April 2022 former British boxing champion Amir Khan was accosted by a gunman who made off with his custom-made £72,000 watch as he left a restaurant in east London.