Police intercept international phone-smuggling ring after 40,000 devices stolen
An international network suspected of missing tens of thousands of stolen phones from the UK was broken by the police.
Metropolitan police said it was the biggest operation of overcoming the telephone theft in London.
In a statement on Monday, Monday, the penalty organization in the last 12 months from England from China to China stolen telephone smuggling is believed.
The force launched the Echosteep Operation in December 2024 after being in a warehouse near the Heathrow airport, which contains about 1,000 iPhone sent to Hong Kong.
Police said the officers discovered that almost all the phones were stolen.
They seized more posts and used judicial evidence in the packages to describe the suspects.
A man was accused of dealing with stolen goods after 10 suspects were stopped at the Heathrow Airport on September 20.
Officers also discovered two iPads, two laptops and two rolex clocks.
Police announced that the same man has traveled 200 times between London and Algeria in two years.
In his 30s, the other two men were arrested three days later on suspicion of focusing stolen goods in the north -east of London.
A series of telephones were found in their cars – and about 2,000 more devices were found in the properties connected to the suspects.
Police said they were then accused and was detained.
Two more men in his 30s were arrested on September 25th, after collecting about 40,000 £ cash in a telephone shop in Sisters Road, Seven Sisters Road in Islington in North London, on suspicion that he had dealt with money laundering and stolen goods.
Officers also seized a series of stolen devices during the search.
Police said men have been waiting for more investigations since then.
After a two -week operation, civil servants carried out a total of 46 arrests; Police, the new iPhone 17 delivery minibuses by robbing criminal gangs while fighting 11 arrests.
Met said he was arrested on suspicion of theft last week and handled the stolen goods and the conspiracy to play.
During the calls made in 28 property in London and Hertfordshire, more than 30 suspected devices were found.
London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan thanked the power of gelmek responding to the concerns of the Londons, and Met’s adding robbery and theft to London fell 13 percent and 14 percent respectively this year.
“This is undoubtedly the biggest operation of the genre in the history of England, and the leaders of MET’s international smuggling gangs, as well as the leaders of this industrial -scale crime, the street robbers and grabs that fueled the crime was descended first.”
“Thanks to our record financing, MET increases visible neighborhood policies in London and uses expert operations in hot spot areas such as Westminster and West End, where about 40 percent of telephone theft occur.
“This edition has already seized hundreds of arrests and thousands of phones and contributed to the decrease in theft and robbery in London in the first quarter of this year.”
However, Sir Sadiq also called on the mobile phone industry to help the authorities by making smugglers to use stolen phones.
“Criminals are doing millions of people by reorganizing stolen phones and selling abroad, and many of them can still access cloud services, Sir said Sir Sadiq.
“Very easy and very profitable.
“I will continue to become even more difficult in designing this crime by making the mobile phone industry unusable the stolen devices.
“We need a coordinated global action to close this trade and create a safer London for everyone.”
Echosteep Operation Senior Research Assistant Detective Inspector Mark Gavin said: “Finding the original shipment of the phones was the starting point of an international illegal gang, which we believe to be responsible for exporting 40 percent of all the phones stolen in London.
“There is a victim behind each of these phones.
“People keep their lives on their phones and they can be hearty when they are stolen.
“We heard the photos of the deceased relatives and other people who were strongly attacked during the robbery.”
Di Gavin added the targeted Apple products, which were especially targeted due to their profitability abroad, paid to Street thieves up to £ 300 per phone, and the stolen devices were sold in China for $ 5,000 (£ 3,711).
MET comes with an increase in the mobile phone theft of cities around the world, and about 80,000 devices were stolen in London last year.
“This is the biggest pressure of mobile phone theft and robbery in the UK in the most extraordinary operations that MET has undertaken so far.
“We dismantled penalty networks at all levels from the street -level thieves to the international organized crime groups exporting tens of thousands of stolen devices each year.
“The Londons deserve to feel safe, and this is a clear sign of Met’s commitment to protecting and using the crime.
“We have shown how serious we are about solving this problem, but we need more help from the industry.
“We urge telephone manufacturers such as Apple and Samsung to do more to support us and to protect our customers-especially around phone safety and reuse.”
Crime and Police Minister Sarah Jones, the operation sent a “open message to criminals involved in telephone theft and smuggling,“ Telephone theft comes in the streets, behind the shop meters or as part of an organized crime gang.
“I want to see more of these large -scale interventions, so we put more police on the streets and armed criminals with stronger forces to watch the criminals responsible and make our streets safer.”
