702
Feds in Catalonia, Spain think everyone using a Google Pixel must be a drug dealer
(www.androidauthority.com)
Sounds like a good recommendation.
this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2025
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Yeah, this is legitimately an amazing ad, though Google may bot want it because they probably make more money off your data than you buying the device.
Doesn't a Google Pixel device come with its own OS image by default, independent of Graphene OS? Is there some kind of step that we're missing here?
Yes. Cops are idiots. Duh.
It does, but a lot of people but the pixels specifically to put graphene on it because graphene they're compatible and graphene offers better privacy and security. What I'm getting here is drug dealers are using graphene to dodge digital narcs and it's becoming common enough that the Venn diagram skews heavily to drug dealing.
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TLDR: Drug dealers in Catalonia have started to adopt GrapheneOS
Gonna guess that's probably a lie.
Why?
I don't doubt the claim, but I would imagine others do because there's a relatively minor technical skill hurdle on replacing a phone's operating system which would turn most people away.
I never used a Pixel or Graphene OS, but when I installed Lineage OS on a Redmi, Xiaomi made me wait a week to unlock the bootloader. Huge pain in the ass.
Or there might be a better "drug-dealer-friendly" OS. I only know of Lineage and Graphene as open source alternatives, so I could just be speculating.
Also, all my former drug dealers used WhatsApp on the stock vendor OS. But then again... I live in South Africa, so the police are more focused on violent crimes (both enforcement and perpetration)
There's for sure different tiers to drug dealing and OPSEC. While some guys who throw around shrooms and LSD may not care too much about OPSEC, big time players who import "sensitive" drugs like fetanyl have extreme OPSEC procedures
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