One Stolen iPhone Led To Thousands More

British 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 last 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 dawn 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 honed 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 percent of all the phones stolen in London".

A few days ago, authorities 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 percent in the year ending March 2025, standing at its highest level since 2003.