Feds in Catalonia, Spain think everyone using a Google Pixel must be a drug dealer
Cops in this country think everyone using a Google Pixel must be a drug dealer (Updated)
TLDR: Drug dealers in Catalonia have started to adopt GrapheneOS en masse leading to Catalan police suspecting anyone with a Google Pixel is a drug dealer
This is a weird advertisement, but I kind of want grapheneOS now.
Been on it for about 19 months now, it's what Android should be.
I have an iPhone since the first one and I wanna try it to.
Shameless plug for SwapMyOS
Sounds like a good recommendation.
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.
They're mad they can't use cellbrite to snoop on properly configured GOS phones and that they actually have to do real police work to catch drug dealers
Yes. They (cellebrite) don't mention GrapheneOS support very loudly because it's poor. They can't decrypt one that's BFU (Before First Unlock), not even by brute force if it's a 6 digit passcode apparently. Don't know if they can get data from an AFU GOS pixel. A year ago when their internal docs leaked, they also had no support for latest iOS at the time, but had brute force support for older versions as long as phone itself wasn't too new and had AFU access without brute force for even older versions.
Moral of the story: if there's a chance police might take your phone to investigate for a crime you hopefully didn't even commit, shut down your phone completely - the 5x power button trick on iOS disables biometric unlock, but the device itself stays decrypted and thus more vulnerable. Also keep your OS up to date.
If you've got a phone that's neither iOS nor GrapheneOS, it's probably pretty much Swiss cheese anyway. IOS isn't as good as GrapheneOS either, but it offers some protection against Cellebrite if up to date and BFU. But if they keep your phone for long enough (months, years), they'll get it unlocked because you can't install updates that would patch any newly discovered vulnerabilities and one day they'll find a BFU unlock for it, probably.
Grapheneos also has options to just disable data over the USB port when its locked. Or disable it outright.
Graphene OS in particular comes with a default feature enabled called Auto Reboot to protect against this. I think it's set to 18 hours by default because that's what mine is, but you can go as low as 4 hours.
If you have it set to four hours, I'd wager your phone would reset way before the pigs had enough time to try and get their way in.
If she floats, she's a witch and we'll burn her at the stake.
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?
You can buy them with either stock Android, or Graphene. Meaning you don't need to re flash the device or anything.
You cant buy grapheneos preloaded on anything and doing so would be pretty foolish since it could be backdoored. GraphenOS is aimed at people who value security and privacy, you dont let some rando flash your phone if you value those things.
I think this is incorrect but I could be wrong.
You can not buy a Pixel device preloaded with GrapheneOS. They only come from Google with their standard Android and it's up to the end user to install GrapheneOS. Unless you buy a used Pixel device with GrapheneOS already installed.
Police are not the brightest in any society.
It's a literal job requirement. If you're smart, you're not going to blindly follow orders. Police cognitive testing literally discards candidates that perform well in intellectual tasks. This is not a conspiracy or a joke, it's how police works.
Reminds me of getting a notice in Middle School, decades ago, about how a pager was considered "drug paraphernalia"
There was also a big Bloomberg-Era push by the NYPD to arrest any woman carrying condoms on her person, on the grounds that a woman carrying a condom must be a sex worker.
Everything I hear about Bloomberg make me question how he ran as a democrat, and then I remember he fits the democratic party better than anyone else...
NYC's greatest act was tricking everyone into thinking it's a progressive city. I am interested in Mamdani at least.
Well I do use a Pixel (for lineage OS) and I do make my living selling drugs... wait wait this is a bad example.
You too!?
Oh crap, are they onto us?
Gotta some of that good ket?
No not a veterinarian, sorry.
Update, July 3, 2025 (11:45 AM ET): The crew behind GrapheneOS is understandably none too pleased about their good name being dragged through the mud, and members are speaking out about these reports from Spain. Over on X, the official GrapheneOS account posts:
European authoritarians and their enablers in the media are misrepresenting GrapheneOS and even Pixel phones as if they’re something for criminals. GrapheneOS is opposed to the mass surveillance police state these people want to impose on everyone.
Security is a tool, and can be wielded just as much for good as it can for bad. While some people may see this as an indictment, we’d say it’s more the inevitable consequence of GrapheneOS just being very, very good at what it does.
Yeah, when the media is wrong, GrapheneOS out here correcting the media!
Glances at my new Pixel, Welp, I guess I ain't ever goin' to Catalonia. Not that I was planning to go there anyway.
***Tinfoil conspiracy: Maybe this a scare tactic to keep the British out of Spain.
Reminds me of when the US tried to fight "terror" by kidnapping people and shoving them in Gitmo because they were wearing Casio watches, which is apparently a brand favoured by terrorists.
Guess they're gonna throw my kid into Gitmo then...
I've used Samsungs for years, but they have gotten too expensive for what I need, so I went for a Pixel this time around. I got issues with it, but mostly because I'm so used to the Samsung universe. Still way better than an Apple.
I guess I'm a Spanish drug dealer now.
You went from the biggest name in non-apple phones to the second biggest name in non-apple phones. You're so brave.
What's your point?
Isn't it likely the police is kind of right?
I mean, how many people in that community used grapheneos phones before the drug dealers figured out how good they were for their purposes? So in that community, it's indeed very likely that a grapheneos user is in a drug gang.
Does that mean that grapheneos is an issue, or bad? Not at all. But i see a lot of digs at the police here at how dumb they are. But if literally most grapheneos users there are drug dealers, is it dumb? It's just a plain observation that's pretty correct.
And it's kind of logical that proper open source tools that are not full of spyware are better for also such purposes. Doesn't make these tools a problem. If a politician would now start a crusade against such operating systems, that i would agree is dumb.
But i don't see an issue with police somewhere realizing that drugdealers use a specific tool, and focusing on that. Of course sucks for the couple of regular users there that just do it to have control over their device....
That really depends on what they do with that information. If people get arrested for having a pixel, that's a huge issue. If someone merely gets a closer investigation if they're suspected of another crime, that's fine.
The article is light on details.
I think most of the criticism towards police is because they are discriminating based on Google Pixels, which is a completely normal car that you can install GrapheneOS on. It would be like targeting anyone driving a Kia because of the Kia Boys
Pixel has a market share of 1.5%, so they kind of stand out. Also, there is no such thing as "federales" in Spain. Spain is not a federation. If they are talking about National Police or Guardia civil, they go through a pretty hard entrance exam, and then have a minimum of one year instruction. Executive ranks must have a university degree. Generally reasonably competent. Mossos (regional) and local police are another story. They are quite a bit less competent.
Merci per la idea de negoci. (/s)
I was very confused why I could read this without knowing what language it was lol. Catalan is interesting
It’s been influenced by both spanish and french cultural erasure to the point modern catalan is quite similar and readable to people who speak Spanish or French. (Though still quite a distinct language).
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)
Hey, the security is nice, but I really like the detailed control over notifications, GMS prompts, and network access. When I used PixelOS, my phone did things I didn't want it to, and it was hard or impossible to make it stop. On GrapheneOS, the defaults are a pretty good experience. I even recommend it to non-techies since they can use it with the Google apps and its still a more respectful experience, even if they don't need or want the level of control that I like.
Can confirm. Own pixel, deal drugs.
But do you live in Catalonia?
Feds???? WTF!
Solid cop logic. Of the exact level you'd expect.
Spain can get fucked. They hate tourists and air conditioning too.
Aaand don't come back!
You clearly don't live in a tourist heavy zone. Also the fact that you generalise what some locals in selected very tourist heavy cities are doing with the whole fucking country is very telling. We are better without you <3
there's nothing wrong with being anti-gentrification. don't act like a tourist and you'll be fine
Your Airbnb was someone's home.
You're allowed to be as anti-tourist as you would like but don't even dare say anything about migrants or else you'll get hit with hate speech charges
The cops quite obviously don't think owning a Pixel makes somebody a drug dealer. But if they arrest or detain a suspect then owning a Pixel flashed with GrapheneOS isnt exactly a sign of innocence. Even if nothing could be extracted from the phone, I'm sure a judge and jury could be convinced what they were doing if they have such a device in their possession.
Also, regardless of the security the OS claims to have, most criminals are not the brightest and I bet some can be squeezed to hand over the key or the phone can be unlocked with a face id or fingerprint. It also motivates the cops to do what they've done in the past where they have compromised supposedly secure operating systems or apps and installed backdoors.
OK. Owing an iPhone or Samsung also isn't a sign of innocence, it's just a phone, just like a Pixel. There may be a higher incidence of people owning Pixels being drug dealers/traffickers, but there's also likely a lot of people who have them who aren't drug dealers/traffickers, so that fact isn't useful as evidence.
You're getting it the wrong way around. People aren't arrested for the phone they have. This is a complete nonsense by a clickbait article. They are arrested based on observation or intelligence of criminal activity. After the fact, when they are arrested they are found to have one of these phones flashed to use a privacy OS. Do you think such a phone convinces the cops they got the wrong person or not? The answer quite obviously is it convinces the cops this person is a criminal and is attempting to hide what they are up to.
It would be absurd to think cops are staring at people's phones to initiate arrests because they are not.
What's wrong with drug dealers?
How it used to be old GSM phones like those from Nokia that were then the thing for the underworld.
How's Catalan independence going
any moment now
This is the best recommendation for a phone I've seen yet.
Thanks catalonian police
Be wary since as of Android 16, Google no longer provides device source for Pixel phones.
I'll keep in mind thanks
The grapheneOS team still got an android 16 release out relatively quickly