Since 2026, theft cases involving photovoltaic facilities have occurred with high frequency in multiple areas. The public security authorities of Dayao and Yongren in Chuxiong, Yunnan, and Panzhihua in Sichuan conducted coordinated operations and successfully dismantled a cross-regional criminal gang specializing in stealing copper-core cables from photovoltaic power stations.

Since March 2026, theft cases involving copper-core cables at photovoltaic power stations have successively occurred in Jinbi Town and Zhaojiadian Town of Dayao County, with the amount involved exceeding 100,000 yuan!After the cases occurred, the Dayao County Public Security Bureau deployed capable police officers to form a special task force, which rushed to the crime scenes to carry out investigations, evidence collection, clue screening, and other work, making every effort to advance the case investigation.

Through analysis and assessment, it was found that the modus operandi in this series of cases was highly similar, confirming that they were committed by the same criminal gang. The gang was highly experienced, carefully scouting locations before committing the crimes, then quickly transferring the stolen goods and fleeing across regions afterward. Their movements were elusive and unpredictable, bringing considerable difficulty to the investigation. In response, the special task force officers quickly activated the cross-regional police cooperation mechanism and immediately contacted the Yongren County Public Security Bureau and the Renhe District Branch of the Panzhihua Public Security Bureau, where the suspects were likely active and disposing of stolen goods, to jointly carry out the investigation.Through coordinated operations and meticulous investigation by the police in the three locations, all 2 members of the mobile theft gang were successfully arrested in one sweep, solving 6 serial theft cases and 1 case involving concealment of criminal proceeds. After interrogation, the suspects confessed to the criminal facts of cross-regional mobile theft of copper-core cables and illegal disposal of stolen goods for profit. At present, coercive measures have been taken against the suspects in accordance with the law, and the case is under further investigation.

The police call on all construction sites, enterprises, and relevant units to effectively strengthen security awareness, reinforce property management at construction sites, adopt key protective measures for items vulnerable to theft such as cables, steel bars, and mechanical equipment, improve the installation of surveillance equipment, and strengthen night patrols and guard duty to prevent theft cases at the source. At the same time, the police also call on the general public to actively report illegal and criminal acts that damage photovoltaic power generation-related projects, and hope that personnel in the purchasing industry will consciously abide by the law and refrain from purchasing cables, metals, and other items of unknown origin or obviously priced below market value. If any disposal of stolen goods is discovered, it should be promptly reported to the public security authorities.

Coincidentally, the Jingyuan County Public Security Bureau in Gansu also cracked a major photovoltaic panel theft case on May 28, arresting 5 suspects. Investigation found that the gang had repeatedly sneaked into local photovoltaic construction sites since March, committing a total of 15 crimes, stealing more than 600 photovoltaic panels, with the total value involved exceeding 400,000 yuan. Particularly typical was that the gang had formed a mature out-of-town disposal model: the suspects contacted buyers from other regions through the internet and sold the brand-new stolen photovoltaic panels across provinces to places such as Jiangsu. In addition, a case of embezzlement by internal personnel of a photovoltaic project was also exposed in Jincheng, Shanxi. A project material clerk took advantage of his position to privately resell 30 boxes of brand-new photovoltaic modules, illegally profiting more than 620,000 yuan, while a recycler knowingly purchased the goods despite their unclear origin. In the end, both were sentenced according to law.

The multiple cases of photovoltaic cable and photovoltaic panel theft successively solved by public security authorities in many places, in which criminals committed mobile crimes across regions and quickly disposed of stolen goods for profit through illegal recycling channels, have exposed prominent problems in the current photovoltaic recycling and trade sector, such as the lack of traceability management and weak control over the circulation of stolen goods. The spread of photovoltaic theft and the illegal recycling black market not only causes huge economic losses to photovoltaic power stations and enterprises under construction, disrupting the normal construction and operation order of photovoltaic projects, but also disturbs the rules of the renewable resource recycling industry, bringing severe ecological and environmental risks as well as hidden dangers to social security. To tackle the disorder at its source and cut off the black industrial chain, strengthening traceability management of photovoltaic recycling traders has become an urgent task in industry regulation.