According to British authorities, a worldwide criminal network was broken on Tuesday. The network was accused of transporting up to 40,000 stolen mobile phones from the UK to China during the previous year.
In their biggest-ever crackdown on phone thefts, the Metropolitan Police made 46 arrests in the past two weeks.
Last year, a shipment of 1,000 iPhones—the vast majority of which were stolen—was discovered at a warehouse close to London’s Heathrow Airport on its way to Hong Kong, prompting the authorities to initiate a crackdown.
As a result, law enforcement was able to apprehend a global criminal organization that was allegedly involved in the export of as many as 40% of the stolen phones from London.
Eleven were apprehended after police cracked down on gangs stealing new iPhone 17 delivery vans, while two were taken into custody on charges of money laundering following the discovery of forty thousand pounds (about forty thousand euros) in cash at a north London phone shop.
“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,” said Andrew Featherstone, the police commander.
The police estimate that 80,000 phones were stolen in London last year, with a disproportionate number of these devices taken from popular tourist areas in the city’s downtown.
The group allegedly went for iPhones because of how lucrative they are in foreign markets. They said that crooks were making as much as £345 (£300) each stolen phone, which they would then sell in China for as much as $4,284 (€4,284).
The “unprecedented scale of this operation” has sent a clear message to criminals, according to Sarah Jones, the UK’s Minister of Crime and Policing.
“If you’re involved in phone theft, be it on the streets, behind shop counters, or part of an organised crime gang, we’re coming after you,” stated Jones in a press release.
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