UK police uncover gang suspected of smuggling thousands of stolen phones to China

LONDON (AP) — British police said Tuesday they have disrupted a criminal network suspected of smuggling up to 40,000 stolen mobile phones from the U.K. to China in the past year.

Police said the operation, the largest it has ever staged to tackle phone theft, was launched last year after a box containing about 1,000 iPhones — most of them stolen — was discovered at a warehouse near London’s Heathrow Airport, destined for Hong Kong .

The operation uncovered an international gang believed to have been responsible for exporting up to 40% of all the phones stolen in London, the Metropolitan Police said.

Around 80,000 cellphones were stolen in London last year, police said, with many of them snatched in central London’s tourist hot spots.

A total of 46 people were arrested in the operation, including two men who were detained in London last month on suspicion of handling stolen goods after some 2,000 phones were found in their car and addresses linked to them.

“This group specifically targeted Apple products because of their profitability overseas,” said Detective Inspector Mark Gavin. “We discovered street thieves were being paid up to 300 pounds ($403) per handset and uncovered evidence of devices being sold for up to $5,000 in China.”