Some of the 15,000 stolen batteries found by the police on Wednesday, 20 December, 2016 (Photo: Ministry of Interior Facebook page)
Egypt's Ministry of Interior says that police have arrested seven members of a gang responsible for stealing a shipment of 15,000 batteries imported for Egypt's first locally manufactured Smartphone 'Sico' earlier this week.
The ministry said in a statement that after interviewing the driver who was transporting the shipment from Damietta port to the Sico factory in Assiut, the ministry formed a search effort that led to the arrest of the main suspect behind the theft; the owner of a supply office identified as Alaa El-Din A.
According to investigators, the suspect collaborated with six other gang members in intercepting the shipment while en route to Assiut and loading the batteries onto two semi trailer trucks.
The shipment was then taken to a warehouse owned by the first suspect, who is already wanted in five other cases.
Police have recovered the stolen shipment, and the suspects have been referred to the prosecution.
Shortly after the theft, Egypt's Sico Technology company delayed the commercial launch of its Smartphone from late December to mid-January.
The company said that the thousands of pre-orders that have been made for the phone will now be delivered by mid-January.
The company has been planning to offer several types of regular and smart phones as well as the Sico tab.
Sico manufactures 58 percent of its products' components locally.
The Sico Smartphone was first unveiled at the inauguration of the 20th annual Information and Communication Technology Conference earlier this month.
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