One iPhone led police to gang suspected of sending up to 40,000 stolen UK phones to China

According to police, they have dismantled an international organisation accused of smuggling up to 40,000 stolen cell phones from the United Kingdom to China in the last year. 18 suspects have been arrested and more than 2,000 stolen units have been found in what the Metropolitan Police claims to be the UK's biggest ever operation against phone hackings. The gang is suspected of exporting up to half of all phones loo lool in London, where the majority of mobiles are confiscated in the United Kingdom. News from BBC News has been given access to the operation, including the names of the criminals, their methods, and raids on 28 London and Hertfordshire properties. After a robber traced a stolen phone last year, an investigation was launched.

It was really on Christmas Eve and a perpetrator electronically tracked their stolen iPhone to a warehouse near Heathrow Airport,

Detective Inspector Mark Gavin said. "The security was eager to help out, and they discovered the phone in a box, one of another 894 phones.

Officers discovered that almost all of the phones had been stolen and that in this case, they were being sent to Hong Kong. More shipments were then intercepted, and officers used forensic analysis to identify two men. As the probe into the two men came home, police bodycam video caught cops, some with Tasers drawn, executing a dramatic mid-road intercept of a vehicle. Officers discovered devices wrapped in foil, an attempt by criminals to move stolen items unnoticed.

Both men, who were in their 30s, were charged with plotting to obtain stolen property and arranging to conceal or remove criminal property. Hundreds of phones were found in their car when they were stopped, and about 2,000 more were discovered at locations related to them. Since being charged with the same offences, a third man, namely a 29-year-old Indian national, has been charged with three separate criminal offen

Finding the original shipment of phones was the starting point of an investigation that revealed an international smuggling organisation that may be responsible for exporting up to 40% of all the phones stolen in London,

Det Insp Gavin said. Officers made another 15 arrests last week on suspicion of robbery, handling stolen property, and a scheme to rob. All but one of the suspects are women, including a Bulgarian national. During early morning raids, 30 devices were discovered.

In the four years, the number of phones stolen in London has almost tripled from 28,609 in 2020 to 80,588 in 2024. Three-quarters of all phones robbed in the United Kingdom are now being taken in London. Every year, more than 20 million people visit the capital, and tourist hotspots such as the West End and Westminster are popular for phone snatching and robbery. According to the most recent Office of National Statistics results, theft from the person has increased across England and Wales by 15% in the year ending March 2025, the highest level since 2003. A growing demand for second-hand phones both in the United Kingdom and abroad is thought to be a contributing factor in the rise in robbery, and many victims end up not getting their phones back.

We're hearing that some criminals are quitting smoking and going straight for the phone market because it's more lucrative,

Policing Minister Sarah Jones said.

If you rob a phone and it's worth hundreds of pounds, you will understand why criminals who are one step ahead and want to cash in on new crimes are turning to the internet.

The criminal gang specifically attacked Apple products due to their exporting, according to senior officers. Street robbers were charged up to £300 a handset, according to the Met Police investigation, stolen computers in China are being sold for up to $4,000 a piece, making it more accessible to those trying to defy censorship.

This is the biggest crackdown on mobile phone hacking and robbery in the United Kingdom,

Met's lead on combating phone theft in the most unusual series of operations the Met has ever carried out.

We've dismantled criminal networks at every level, from street-level robbery to multinational organised crime organisations exporting tens of thousands of stolen items each year.

Many victims of phone theft, including the Met, have been chastised for not doing enough. Officers are among the most common complaints when victims alert the police that they have been missing using Apple's Find My iPhone or similar tracking services that have been abused.

Natalie Mitchel, 29, had her phone taken on Oxford Street in central London last year. She got in touch withYour Voice, Your BBC Newsto says she now feels on alert when visiting the capital.

It's really scary being here, and I'm not sure who is around me.

I'm worried about my luggage, I'm afraid about my phone,she said.I think the Met Police should be doing a lot more, including the installation of more CCTV cameras or determining if they have any undercover police officers to solve this issue.

I think because of the number of cases and the number they are contacting, they don't have the time or expertise to deal with all these situations.

The Metropolitan Police, which has expanded to TikTok and other social media sites with a number of videos of officers combating phone snatchers in recent months, has seen personal robbery drop by 13% and theft in London has decreased by 14% this year. According to the West End team, up to 80 more officers are expected to concentrate on cases such as phone robbery. To cope with a £260 million hole in the force's budget over the next year, the service will have to lay off almost 2,000 officers as well as cut a number of others. Mayor Sadiq Khan said the Met was improving visible neighbourhood policing in London and deploying special operations in hotspot areas, such as Westminster and the West End, which the Met lauds for hundreds of arrests and thousands of handsets confiscated. He criticized the simplicity of repurposing stolen phones and said: