Caption: EMBARGOED TO 2200 MONDAY OCTOBER 6Undated handout photo issued by Metropolitan Police of officers examining the stolen phones recovered during Operation Echosteep. Police have disrupted an international network suspected of smuggling tens of thousands of stolen phones from the UK in its largest ever operation to tackle phone theft in London, the Metropolitan Police said. The criminal organisation is believed to have smuggled up to 40,000 stolen phones from the UK to China over the past 12 months – up to 40% of all
phones stolen in the capital, the Met said on Monday. The force launched Operation Echosteep in December last year after a box containing about a thousand iPhones being shipped to Hong Kong was found at a warehouse near Heathrow Airport. Issue date: Monday October 6, 2025. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned
in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.Photographer: Metropolitan PoliceProvider: Metropolitan Police/PA WireSource: PA
Metropolitan Police, Operation Echosteep, phone theft, smuggling, stolen phones, London, Heathrow, iPhones, Hong Kong, China
So they seized phones… but does that even bring the victims’ data back?
40,000 stolen phones to China?? That sounds like the whole city’s basically being wiped out. I swear I saw this coming with all the phone theft videos.
Wait, is this why my cousin’s iPhone got stolen in London and then showed up in some random marketplace? Like how long does it take to ship stuff over there, days? Seems kinda fast if they did 12 months.
I don’t get it, if it’s the Met Police then why are they stopping it at Heathrow only? Seems like they should’ve done this years ago. Also “biggest ever operation” like cool, but my brother still had to replace his phone and nobody refunded him.