How 'largest phone smuggling network' was uncovered by Met

A stolen mobile phone hidden inside a sealed parcel at a warehouse near Heathrow airport marked the beginning of what investigators now describe as the UK’s largest phone smuggling operation. The stolen device, tracked not by police but by its rightful owner, was traced to the warehouse after being stolen just before Christmas in 2024, with the victim alerting the DHL courier company.

Commander Andy Featherstone, leading the Metropolitan Police’s mobile phone theft unit, explained that the phone was unusually still active inside the parcel, which allowed tracking. Normally, stolen phones are wrapped in aluminum foil to block signals and prevent tracking. Upon investigation, officers discovered over 800 stolen devices packed in groups of five, some wrapped in foil and others in bubble wrap, all poised to be exported to Hong Kong. This discovery triggered a major police operation, known as Operation Echosteep, involving detectives familiar with armed robbery and drug smuggling cases, who worked to pinpoint suspects. Additional shipments were intercepted, and through forensic analysis of the packaging, two men came under surveillance.

In a significant development in September 2025, police stopped a vehicle in Waltham Forest and arrested Amir Muhammad Khadikhel and Ismat Miakhel. The car’s interior contained numerous phones scattered across the back seat and wrapped in foil on the floor. Both men were found wearing necklaces with pins meant for extracting SIM cards from the phones. Authorities also uncovered around 2,000 devices at addresses linked to them. Court proceedings revealed that Roshan Fruit and Nuts, a shop on Lea Bridge Road in Leyton, east London, was used to store stolen phones. In that location, a trapdoor led investigators to a basement where boxes labeled as dried goods contained phones swathed in foil along with nearly £45,000 in cash. Another property revealed stolen phones concealed inside a microwave. Prosecutor Karen Robinson KC described the defendants as central figures in a “sophisticated and criminal network” responsible for seizing over 5,000 stolen phones valued at approximately £5.5 million in the UK. The court also heard that Khadikhel had arrived in the UK from Afghanistan in 2019 as an asylum seeker, while Mansoor Mohammed, from India, was implicated in handling the devices.

In April, Khadikhel, 35, Miakhel, 33, and Mohammed, 30, from Wood Green, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to handle stolen goods and involvement in organized criminal activities. Additionally, Khadikhel and Miakhel admitted to conspiring to remove stolen goods. Sentencing by Judge Adam Hiddleston resulted in prison terms of nine-and-a-half years for Khadikhel, nine years for Miakhel, and six-and-a-half years for Mohammed. The judge noted the gravity of the offenses, highlighting the “enormous scale financially” and the “highly organised and sophisticated” nature of the crimes.

This network was suspected of smuggling up to 40,000 stolen phones in 2024 and 2025 alone, accounting for roughly 40% of all phones stolen within London during that period. Commander Featherstone outlined a complex hierarchy behind the operation, stating that handlers recruited street thieves through social media, offering hundreds of pounds for each stolen device. “So a modern device, or the most recent phone that had been released, would fetch a higher premium – in most cases around the £500 mark,” he said. The collected phones were packaged and shipped to China, part of a global operation involving millions of pounds. The Crown Prosecution Service’s Saira Pike underscored the wider impact of phone theft, explaining it causes victims to lose not only their devices but also personal data, sentimental photos, and a sense of safety. Police have also reported that children have been recruited through social media to steal phones, and Featherstone described an incident where a 14-year-old was found with about 20 stolen phones, potentially worth thousands of pounds in a single day.

To date, the Metropolitan Police have arrested 14 individuals linked to Operation Echosteep, recovered

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