Three members of one of the country’s largest phone smuggling networks are facing lengthy jail terms for their role in a trafficking operation worth £180 million.
Amir Muhammad Khadikhel, Ismat Miakhel, Mansoor Mohammed, who are all based in London and in their thirties, admitted their role in smuggling more than 62,000 stolen devices to China in the last year.
Almost one in every two phones stolen in the capital during that period is thought to have passed through their operation, in which detectives codenamed the two suspects at the top of the gang Seagull and Heron.
The racket was rumbled after detectives found a box containing around 1,000 iPhones being shipped to Hong Kong at a warehouse near Heathrow Airport when a member of the public used the Find My Phone feature to locate their device.
Detectives reckoned a huge network of pickpockets – including a network of Bulgarian girls and young women operating under a ‘Fagin’-type boss – stole mobiles from unwitting members of the public, before selling them on to around 50 middlemen such as Mohammed.
Police said he paid up to £760 for the phones – all of which were Apple devices, never any other make – and then wrapped them up in tin foil in a mistaken attempt to prevent them being located.
He then passed the bundles up to Khadikhel and Miakhel – the supposed brains of the operation – who packed around 300 devices into one consignment and dispatched them with couriers such as UPS and DHL.
Police believe the duo were sending two parcels a week, while Mohammed and other middlemen had a ‘float’ of potentially hundreds of thousands of pounds to pay pickpockets for their stolen loot.
The Met’s investigation recovered a plethora of stolen phones from the organised crime group
Amir Muhammad Khadikhel, known as Seagull, was one of the men at the head of the group
Ismat Maikhel, known as Heron, was also part of the OCG
Detectives later linked Mansoor Mohammed to the racket
Afghan national Khadikhel was arrested by police in September last year
Officers said the venture is so financially rewarding that organised crime groups are abandoning the drugs markets to deal exclusively in stolen phones.
Specialist detectives brought in to track down the suspects intercepted further shipments and used forensics found on the packages to identify those involved.
The Met said the convictions were the result of a year-long investigation into the UK’s largest mobile phone smuggling networks.
Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley hailed the coordinated raids that halted the operation ‘the ‘biggest counter-phone theft operation in the world.’
Afghan nationals Khadikhel, 35, of Wanstead, and Miakhel, 33, from Walthamstow, and Indian national Mohammed, 30, of Wood Green today pleaded guilty to conspiracy to handle stolen goods, and participating in criminal activities of an organised crime group.
Asylum seeker Khadikhel and Miakhel – who has a British passport – also admitted conspiracy to remove stolen goods.
They entered their pleas on what was supposed to be the first day of their trial at Southwark Crown Court, and were remanded in custody today ahead of a sentencing hearing next month.
Dramatic footage showed the Afgan nationals Miakhel – known as Heron – and Khadikhel, given the moniker Seagull by detectives, dramatically dragged from their car by police while driving through north London in September last year.
The vehicle was a people carrier that had been converted into a mobile ‘chop shop’ used to disable and transport the stolen devices.
Police stopped the defendants’ car in north London in September last year
The occupants – dubbed Seagull and Heron by detectives investigating the gang – were dragged from the car and detained in the street
Police later recovered thousands of stolen handsets, destined for Asia
Police caught them with a bundle of devices wrapped in foil to block their tracking signal.
The men had sent thousands of phones to the very same high-rise block in Hong Kong that was infiltrated by Mail reporters in an investigation in July last year, which was praised by officers in the case.
Victims said their phones contained precious mementos such as cherished photographs and final voicemails from relatives who had since died.
Speaking following the guilty pleas today, Detective Inspector Mark Gavin, the Met’s senior investigating officer, said: ‘Our detectives understand the real impact and distress that phone theft causes victims, which is why we have been determined to ensure those responsible are brought to justice.
‘The discovery of that first shipment of stolen phones triggered a complex investigation that ultimately dismantled an international smuggling network.
‘This group deliberately targeted high-value phone brands for resale overseas. Our investigation found street thieves were being paid up to £300 per handset, with some devices later selling for as much as 5,000 US Dollars in China.’
Commander Andy Featherstone, the Met’s lead for tackling mobile phone theft, said: ‘We are dismantling criminal networks at every level – from street thieves to international exporters – making hundreds of arrests and recovering thousands of stolen phones.
‘Mobile phone theft is down by 13,000 offences compared with the previous financial year, but we are not letting up.
‘We are using every tool available, including data‑led intelligence, specialist investigative teams, drones, high‑powered e‑bikes, live facial recognition, and more officers on the beat to tackle phone thieves.’
The operation was relatively simple, involving the centuries-old practice of pickpocketing.
Police observed the gang buying 2.2 km of tin foil in one go from wholesalers to wrap the stolen devices in.
Detectives then arrested Heron and Seagull on suspicion of handling stolen goods.
Several hundred phones were recovered from their car, along with £25,000 in cash, with a further 2,000 devices seized from properties linked to the men.
The investigation also identified Mohammed – who is in the country on a skilled workers visa – as being involved in the handling and supply of stolen devices.
The Met said the trio were living modest lifestyles, in small properties without the obvious trappings of success.
Detectives are as yet unable to put a price on exactly how much money each of the men made.
To date, the Met’s investigation team has made 14 arrests, recovered more than 10,000 stolen iPhones and seized in excess of £250,000 in illicit cash.
More than 1,000 victims have been reunited with their stolen phones.
