iPhone Tracking Leads Police to International Gang Behind 40,000 Stolen UK Phones
The Metropolitan Police say they have dismantled an international phone theft ring believed to have smuggled as many as 40,000 stolen mobile phones from the UK to China over the past year.
Eighteen suspects were arrested and more than 2,000 stolen devices recovered in what the force described as Britain’s biggest-ever operation targeting mobile phone theft.
According to police, the gang could be responsible for nearly half of all phones stolen in London, which accounts for the majority of such crimes in the UK.
The breakthrough came last Christmas Eve when a theft victim traced their stolen iPhone to a warehouse near Heathrow Airport. Upon investigation, security staff found the device inside a box containing nearly 900 other phones – most of them stolen and bound for Hong Kong.
Detective Inspector Mark Gavin, who led the operation, said the discovery “was the starting point for an investigation that uncovered an international smuggling network” dealing in tens of thousands of stolen handsets.
Further police work and forensic analysis of intercepted shipments led officers to two Afghan nationals in their 30s, who were arrested during a dramatic roadside interception. Dozens of phones wrapped in foil — a tactic used to block tracking signals — were found in their vehicle. Both men were charged with conspiring to receive stolen goods and conceal criminal property. A third suspect, an Indian national, faces the same charges.
Last week, police carried out dawn raids on 28 properties across London and Hertfordshire, arresting 15 more people on suspicion of theft, handling stolen goods, and conspiracy to steal. Nearly all the new suspects are women, including a Bulgarian national.
The arrests come amid a sharp rise in mobile phone thefts across the capital. The number of reported cases in London has nearly tripled in four years – from 28,609 in 2020 to over 80,000 in 2024 – with three-quarters of all stolen phones in the UK now taken from London streets.
Police say the surge is partly driven by booming demand for second-hand devices both domestically and overseas. Stolen iPhones, in particular, are highly sought after in China, where they can sell for as much as £4,000 each. Street thieves in London are reportedly paid up to £300 per handset.
Commander Andrew Featherstone, who oversees the Met’s phone theft unit, described the operation as “the largest and most complex crackdown on mobile phone crime in the UK.”
“We’ve dismantled criminal networks from street-level snatchers to international smugglers moving thousands of devices abroad,” he said.
Despite the success, victims of theft continue to criticise the police for being slow to act on live tracking information provided through Apple’s Find My iPhone and similar apps.
One such victim, 29-year-old Natalie Mitchel, told the BBC that she now feels anxious whenever she visits London after her phone was stolen on Oxford Street. “I think the Met should be doing more – maybe more CCTV or undercover officers. Right now, they just don’t have the resources to handle the scale of it,” she said.
In response, the Met Police said it has increased patrols in high-risk areas and launched social media campaigns to highlight its ongoing efforts. The force says personal robbery in London has dropped by 13% and theft by 14% so far this year, though it faces budget cuts that could see nearly 2,000 officers lost in the coming year.
