Government recovers more than 6,000 stolen cell phones and creates manual for inspection on highways

In a new stage, announced this Wednesday (19), the Federal Highway Police and state security forces will begin checking the origin of cell phones during approaches on federal and state highways.

To do this, security forces will have access to the National Bank of Restricted Cell Phones, which gathers information on devices registered as stolen or stolen.

With access to the system, police officers will be able to check, during routine stops, whether the IMEI (unique identification number of each device) has any restrictions.

The agent may ask the citizen for the IMEI number, which can be consulted by typing *#06# on the cell phone or physically verified on the device itself.

The general director of the PRF, Antônio Fernando, stated that it will be possible to cross-reference information about restricted cell phones with vehicle ownership data from Detrans.

"By crossing these two data, the Federal Highway Police can know, for example, that the owner of the vehicle has a cell phone that is stolen and makes more assertive approaches," he said.

The folder states that checking the IMEI does not give access to the content stored on the cell phone. According to the government, this is registration data, comparable to a person's identification or a vehicle's license plate. If the person refuses to offer the IMEI, they will have to prove the origin of the cell phone, as established in the protocol.

NOTIFICATIONS AND RETURN OF DEVICES

Operation Celular Seguro is coordinated by the Ministry of Justice and carried out in partnership with the states. To date, 23 of the 27 federation units have taken action.

Roraima, Tocantins, Santa Catarina and Paraná did not participate. According to the ministry, Roraima was left out for technical reasons, while the other three states showed no interest in participating.

According to data from the Ministry of Justice, states have already sent 33,606 notifications to people identified using devices registered as stolen or stolen.

The system works based on information included in the National Bank of Restricted Cell Phones. When the victim registers the robbery or theft, the data from the device becomes part of the national database.

Through a partnership between the Ministry of Justice, Anatel and telephone operators, it is possible to identify when a new chip is inserted into the device and who starts using it.

Based on this information, the current user receives a message informing that the cell phone has been reported stolen or stolen and instructing it to be delivered to a police station.

The strategy seeks to reach consumers who may have unknowingly purchased cell phones of illicit origin.

Chico Lucas, national secretary of Public Security, said that in Amazonas and Piauí, more than 50% of notified devices are returned voluntarily. In other states, the percentage varies between 20% and 30%.

According to the ministry, spontaneous return after notification can avoid criminal liability for reception.

"The notification changes the nature. Until then, people were not aware of the illegality. From the moment they receive the message, this doubt ceases to exist. So, [those who do not return it] become recipients", stated Chico Lucas.

The information provided by those who return the devices, such as the location where the cell phone was purchased, is also used by security forces to identify establishments and suppliers involved in the reception chain.

According to the government, the strategy seeks to reach the market that financially supports cell phone robberies and theft and, thus, reduce demand for the devices.

"If we don't do this, we won't reduce cell phone crimes and all the perverse effects of this criminal chain will continue to happen, because cell phone crime has repercussions not only on the object, but on fraud, on the occurrence of robberies", said the Minister of Justice, Wellington Lima e Silva.

In Brazil, 225,644 devices were stolen and stolen in the first quarter of 2025, and in 2026 this number reached 215,589 cell phones, a reduction of 4.5%.

CELL CELL PHONE IN PRISONS

On another front, the government maintains operations to remove cell phones from the prison system and make it difficult for members of criminal organizations to communicate with people outside the units.

Since May, around 2,254 devices have been removed from Brazilian prisons through actions such as operations Mute and Modo Avião, according to the Ministry of Justice.

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