UK police hit criminal gang suspected of smuggling stolen phones to China

LONDON - London police said they have broken up a criminal gang suspected of smuggling 40,000 stolen mobile phones to China in their largest operation against phone theft to date, resulting in 46 arrests over the last two weeks.

The gang could be behind about 40 per cent of all the phone theft in London, police said, which like other global cities has seen a surge in the number of devices stolen in recent years, driven by a lucrative international market and facilitated by fast getaways on e-bikes.

Police said in a statement on Oct 7 that the investigation started in 2024, when a box containing around a thousand iPhones was discovered at a warehouse near London’s Heathrow Airport as it was being shipped to Hong Kong.

Apple phones targeted

The group specifically targeted Apple products because of their profitability overseas, police said, discovering they were paid up to £300 (S$520) per Apple phone, which could be sold for up to US$5,000 (S$6,500) in China.

“This is the largest crackdown on mobile phone theft and robbery in the UK,” police commander Andrew Featherstone said.

“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.”

Of the dozens of arrests, eleven were made when officers targeted gangs robbing courier vans delivering the new iPhone 17, while two men in their 30s were arrested on suspicion of money laundering after £40,000 in cash was found at a phone shop in north London.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said phone theft was happening on an “industrial scale” and urged phone manufacturers like Apple and Samsung to take more measures to block the use of stolen phones.

“Criminals are making millions by repurposing stolen phones and selling them abroad, with many still able to access cloud services. It’s simply too easy and too profitable,” he said. REUTERS