A crime gang said to be behind 40 per cent of phone thefts in London has been dismantled by the police.

Forty-six suspects were arrested in Operation Echosteep, run by the Metropolitan Police.

It’s said to be the “largest crackdown on mobile phone theft in the UK”.

The crime gang is said to have committed more than 81,000 phone thefts in London in the last year.

Half of the stolen mobiles were shipped to China.

The Met said the group targeted iPhones because of their profitability overseas.

Street thieves were paid up to £300 for each stolen phone.

The devices were later sold for a substantial profit in China.

More than 230,000 phones have been reported stolen in London over the past four years.

On average, 37 people have their phones snatched each day in the West End alone.

Operation Echosteep started in December 2024 when a box holding about 1,000 iPhones was intercepted at a warehouse near Heathrow Airport.

Picture: Metropolitan Police. Phones found in the suspects’ car.

A phone inside the box was ringing.

The container was being shipped to Hong Kong.

Specialist officers tracked further movement of the phones and used forensics to glean stored evidence.

The hi-tech investigation “inside” the phones’ held data named two men.

Last month (September) two men in their 30s were arrested in north-east London and charged with handling stolen goods.

Stolen phones were found in their car.

And another 2,000 devices were found at properties linked to the suspects.

Fifteen more arrests were made on suspicion of theft, handling stolen goods and conspiracy to steal.

Detective Inspector Mark Gavin, the senior investigating officer for Operation Echosteep, said:

“Finding the original shipment of phones was the starting point for an investigation which uncovered an international smuggling gang, which we believe could have been responsible for exporting up to 40 per cent of all the phones stolen in London.

“Behind every one of those phones is a victim.

“People keep their lives on their phones, and it can be heartbreaking when they’re stolen.

“We heard from people who had lost photos of deceased relatives and others who were violently assaulted during robberies.”

Commander Andrew Featherstone, the Met’s lead for tackling phone theft, said:

“This is the largest crackdown on mobile phone theft and robbery in the UK in the most extraordinary set of operations of this kind that the Met has ever undertaken.

“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.

“Londoners deserve to feel safe, and this is a clear sign of the Met’s commitment to protecting them and driving down crime.”