London - New York: Europe and the Arabs
The New York Times revealed that last month, London police carried out a series of massive raids on dozens of shops specializing in selling used phones, in a move aimed at dismantling organized criminal networks involved in the theft of smartphones, which has reached record levels in the British capital. According to the publication of the European News Network website in Brussels, Euronews.
According to the report, the campaign came in response to an unprecedented rise in phone theft crimes, as the police recorded 80,000 cases during the year 2024, compared to 64,000 cases in 2023, making London described as “the European capital of phone theft.” These crimes constituted about 70% of all thefts in the city last year.
The raids, which lasted for two weeks and included various areas of London, resulted in the seizure of about 2,000 stolen phones and 200,000 British pounds (266,000 US dollars) in cash, in addition to commercial documents related to suspicious purchases and sales.
A global criminal network runs phone smuggling
The New York Times indicated that investigations revealed a three-level criminal network: at its base, thieves use electric bicycles and masks to snatch phones from victims; Among them are intermediaries who buy devices from thieves through stores that sell used phones. At its peak are exporters who send shipments to China and Algeria, where telecommunications companies do not activate international blacklists for stolen devices, allowing them to be used without hindrance.

The December 2024 breakout marked a turning point
A security breach in December 2024 changed the course of the investigation, when a tracking signal from a stolen iPhone led police to a warehouse near Heathrow Airport, where about 1,000 devices were found hidden inside boxes labeled “batteries” and prepared for shipment to Hong Kong. Accordingly, London Police appointed a specialist team of organized crime investigators – typically working on drugs and weapons cases – to lead the investigation.
Two suspected leaders were arrested and aluminum foil was found
On September 23, two men in their 30s suspected of leading the network were arrested after phones wrapped in aluminum foil to thwart tracking signals were found in their car. Police said they spotted one of them purchasing the equivalent of a mile and a half of aluminum foil from a Cosco store.
Basic tools of crime
According to the newspaper, electric bicycles, which entered service in London in 2018, are the preferred means of escape for thieves, due to their speed and ability to navigate in alleys and narrow roads. The attackers often wear balaclavas and hats to avoid recognition, and climb sidewalks to snatch phones from victims' hands at high speed.
Sergeant Matt Chantry, one of the security operations commanders, said: “Trying to chase these people through the busy streets of London involves huge risks, and it may not be worth risking a person’s life for a mobile phone.”
4,000 stolen phones recovered since December
So far, the police have recovered about 4,000 stolen phones, most of them iPhones, and are storing them in a warehouse in the Putney area, southwest of London, awaiting delivery to their owners.
It is estimated that the suspicious network has sent up to 40,000 stolen phones abroad since the beginning of its activity.
Austerity and lack of deterrence
Experts believe that the spread of crime is partly due to the reduction of police budgets during the austerity decade in the second decade of the twenty-first century, which prompted the security force to neglect “simple” crimes such as phone theft.
Official statistics indicate that about 106,000 phones were reported stolen between March 2024 and February 2025, but only less than 500 people were charged or warned.
“This crime is very profitable and less dangerous than drug trafficking,” said Commander Andrew Featherstone, who is in charge of anti-phone theft efforts, explaining that a thief can make 300 pounds (about $400) from each phone — more than three times the minimum daily wage in Britain.