On the face of it, it was a petty street crime that few policemen paid attention to in London. Even though the statistics were weighing heavily against the image of the city and showed that London had turned into the global capital when it came to mobile phone thefts. Over 80,000 phones were flicked in London in 2024. But the unexpected twist in the tale came when London police were not even looking.
In late December, a victim of mobile phone theft in London used the ‘Find My’ feature to track their stolen device to a warehouse near Heathrow Airport. That single iPhone triggered what became a year-long investigation by the Metropolitan Police, uncovering a massive theft-and-smuggling network believed to have shipped up to 40,000 stolen phones from the UK to China over the past 12 months.
The story began with the trace: officers were alerted to a shipment box containing roughly 900 high-end handsets, mostly Apple iPhones, with the victim’s device among them.
This discovery made clear that the case extended far beyond petty street crime and pointed to organised, large-scale exportation of stolen devices. The police dubbed the investigation ‘Operation Echosteep’.
Analysis showed that the gang had built a sophisticated supply chain: street-level thieves in London were paid up to £300 per handset, which were then collected, warehoused, packaged (sometimes wrapped in aluminium foil to block tracking), and exported, mostly to China or Hong Kong. There, these stolen devices fetched up to $5,000 each.
London alone accounted for nearly 80,000 phone thefts in the previous year, and investigators believe this one smuggling network was responsible for as much as 40 percent of those thefts.
Detectives pointed out several features that changed their understanding of the crime. First, the sheer scale: thousands of phones shipping out, international links, multiple addresses raided across London and Hertfordshire. Second, the business model: devices targeted for their resale value abroad rather than simply being stripped for parts locally. Third, coordination: ring-leaders at the top, street robbers below, export routes beyond UK borders.
The breakthrough illustrated a shift: phone theft isn’t just random opportunistic crime. It now functions like an industrial export business. One phone was the breadcrumb that led back through a chain of thefts, warehouses and international shipments. With that first trace the police could follow the box, the warehouse, the shipments, the people.
The implications are serious. For London, it means the fight against phone theft must go beyond petty crime and look at export logistics, global trafficking and cooperation with international law enforcement. For victims, it shows tracking apps can make a difference but only if authorities act on the data. For manufacturers and telecoms, this raises pressure to make stolen devices less export-worthy and harder to resell.
While the arrests (reported at 46 suspects) and seizures may mark a turning point, police say the broader crime problem persists unless the business model is disrupted: better exporter screening, tighter export regulations, stronger device-locking systems. The single phone that sparked this case has helped open eyes to a global racket.