Police say they have dismantled an international gang suspected of smuggling up to 40,000 stolen mobile phones from the UK to China in the past year.

In what the Metropolitan Police says is the UK’s largest ever operation against phone thefts, 18 suspects have been arrested and more than 2,000 stolen devices discovered.

Police believe the gang could be responsible for exporting up to half of all phones stolen in London, where most mobiles are taken in the UK.

BBC News has been given access to the operation, including details of the suspects, their methods, and to raids on 28 properties in London and Hertfordshire.

The investigation was triggered after a victim traced a stolen phone last year.

“It was actually on Christmas Eve and a victim electronically tracked their stolen iPhone to a warehouse near Heathrow Airport,” Detective Inspector Mark Gavin said.

“The security there was eager to help out and they found the phone was in a box, among another 894 phones.”

Officers discovered almost all the phones had been stolen and in this case were being shipped to Hong Kong. Further shipments were then intercepted and officers used forensics on the packages to identify two men.

As the investigation homed in on the two men, police bodycam footage captured officers, some with Tasers drawn, carrying out a dramatic mid-road interception of a car. Inside, officers found devices wrapped in foil – an attempt by offenders to transport stolen devices undetected.

The men, both Afghan nationals in their 30s, were charged with conspiring to receive stolen goods and conspiring to conceal or remove criminal property.

When they were stopped, dozens of phones were found in their car, and about 2,000 more devices were discovered at properties linked to them. A third man, a 29-year-old Indian national, has since been charged with the same offences.

Det Insp Gavin said “finding the original shipment of phones was the starting point for an investigation that uncovered an international smuggling gang, which we believe could be responsible for exporting up to 40% of all the phones stolen in London”.

Last week, officers made a further 15 arrests on suspicion of theft, handling stolen goods and conspiracy to steal.

All but one of the suspects are women, including a Bulgarian national. Some 30 devices were found during early morning raids.

The number of phones stolen in London has almost tripled in the last four years, from 28,609 in 2020, to 80,588 in 2024. Three-quarters of all the phones stolen in the UK are now taken in London.

More than 20 million people visit the capital every year and tourist hotspots such as the West End and Westminster are prolific for phone snatching and theft.

The latest data from the Office for National Statistics found that “theft from the person” has increased across England and Wales by 15% in the year ending March 2025, standing at its highest level since 2003.

A growing demand for second-hand phones, both in the UK and abroad, is believed to be a major driver behind the rise in thefts – and many victims end up never getting their devices back.

“We’re hearing that some criminals are stopping dealing drugs and moving on to the phone business because it’s more lucrative,” Policing Minister Sarah Jones said.

“If you steal a phone and it’s worth hundreds of pounds you can understand why criminals who are one step ahead and want to exploit new crimes are turning to that world.”

Senior officers said the criminal gang specifically targeted Apple products because of their profitability overseas.

The Met Police investigation discovered street thieves were being paid up to £300 per handset – and the force said stolen devices are being sold in China for up to £4,000 each, given they are internet-enabled and more attractive for those trying to bypass censorship.

Commander Andrew Featherstone, the Met’s lead for tackling phone theft, said: “This is the largest crackdown on mobile phone theft and robbery in the UK in the most extraordinary set of operations the Met has ever undertaken.

“We’ve dismantled criminal networks at every level from street-level thieves to international organised crime groups exporting tens of thousands of stolen devices each year.”

Many victims of phone theft have been critical of police – including the Met – for not doing enough.

Frequent complaints include officers not helping when victims report the exact real-time locations of their stolen phone to the police using Apple’s Find My iPhone or similar tracking services.

Last year, Natalie Mitchel, 29, had her phone stolen on Oxford Street, in central London. She got in touch with Your Voice, Your BBC News to say she now feels on edge when visiting the capital.

“It’s really unnerving being here and obviously I’m not sure who is around me. I’m worried about my bag, I’m worried about my phone,” she said.

“I think the Met Police should be doing a lot more – possibly setting up some more CCTV surveillance or seeing if there’s any way they’ve got some undercover police officers just to tackle this problem.

“I think because of the number of cases and the number of people getting in touch with them, they don’t have the resources and capacity to deal with all these cases.”

For its part, the Metropolitan Police – which has taken to TikTok and other social media platforms with various videos of officers tackling phone snatchers in recent months – says personal robbery has been reduced by 13% and theft is down 14% in London so far this year. It says up to 80 more officers are joining the West End team to focus on crimes such as phone robbery.

The force will have to lose almost 2,000 officers, as well as cut a number of services to deal with a £260m hole in its budget over the next year.

London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan said the Met was boosting visible neighbourhood policing across London and deploying special operations in hotspot areas, like Westminster and the West End, which it credits for hundreds of arrests and thousands of handsets seized.

Criticising the ease of repurposing stolen phones, he added: “I will continue to call on the mobile phone industry to go harder and faster in designing out this crime by making stolen devices unusable.

“We need coordinated global action to shut down this trade and build a safer London for everyone.” (BBC)

Update news