UK police have launched the largest-ever phone theft crackdown, seizing thousands of the stolen devices.
According to Sky News, in the largest crackdown against phone theft in London, the Metropolitan Police arrested 46 suspected people from the international smuggling gang.
As per the police, the gang has smuggled more than 40,000 stolen mobile devices from the United Kingdom to China.
The investigation for the stolen phones began after a box containing 1,000 iPhones was found near Heathrow Airport last December.
The officers found that almost all of the phones in the box that was on its way to Hong Kong were stolen, triggering Operation Echosteep.
The senior investigating officer for the operation, Detective Inspector Mark Gavin, said, “This group specifically targeted Apple products because of their profitability overseas. We discovered street thieves were being paid up to £300 per handset and uncovered evidence of devices being sold for up to $5,000 (£3,700) in China."
Furthermore, Commander Andrew Featherstone, the Met's lead for tackling phone theft, described the operation with the specialist detectives as the “largest” crackdown on mobile phone theft and robbery in the country.
“We've shown how serious we are about tackling this issue, but we need more help from the industry. We're calling on phone manufacturers such as Apple and Samsung to do more to support us and protect their customers, especially around phone security and reuse," Featherstone added.
It is worth noting that phone thefts in London have increased threefold in the four years, with 80,588 phones stolen in 2024, up from 28,609 in 2020.
