The bottom line is there is no honour amongst thieves. Even sold as parts if he had dismantled them himself at some point a fence would get caught with phone parts they had no audit trail for, and part # would line up with congress shipments of secured devices.

This theft was doomed from birth. Far smarter to have sold the phone IMEI to a foreign power for a shitload more money and get out to a non extradition nation state.