Three jailed over trafficking stolen devices as part of UK's 'largest mobile phone smuggling network'
Police say the network moved up to 40,000 stolen phones and recovered more than 10,000 devices and £250,000 in cash.
- On Friday, Judge Adam Hiddleston sentenced Amir Muhammad Khadikhel to 9½ years, Ismat Miakhel to nine years, and Mansoor Mohammed to 6½ years at Southwark Crown Court for running the UK's largest phone smuggling network.
- Operation Echosteep began in December 2024 after a victim tracked a stolen device to a Heathrow warehouse, triggering the discovery of a transnational ring that wrapped phones in tin foil to block tracking signals.
- Police suspect the network smuggled up to 40,000 phones during 2024 and 2025, accounting for around 40% of all devices stolen in London, while officers seized more than 10,000 handsets and over £250,000 in cash.
- Judge Hiddleston described the operation as 'enormous scale financially' and 'highly organised and sophisticated,' reflecting the criminality's systemic nature and the defendants' central roles in orchestrating the enterprise.
- Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has requested legislation requiring phone companies to publish stolen-device data and enforce measures to make handsets 'unusable bricks,' acknowledging arrests alone cannot resolve the theft crisis.
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Afghan asylum seeker who masterminded £181MILLION phone smuggling operation jailed
An asylum seeker from Afghanistan who masterminded a phone smuggling operation worth £181million has been jailed.Amir Khadikhel, 35 alongside Ismat Miakhel, 33 and Indian Mansoor Mohammed, 30, admitted receiving tens of thousands of handsets stolen by phone snatchers across Britain. More than 5,000 phones worth £5.5million were seized following an investigation into the defendants, a sentencing hearing for the trio at Southwark Crown Court heard…
Two Afghans and One Indian Sentenced in UK’s £181 Million Smartphone Trafficking Ring
A London court has sentenced two Afghan nationals and one Indian national to a combined 25 years in prison after convicting them over one of the United Kingdom’s largest organized mobile phone trafficking networks, which smuggled more than 62,000 stolen smartphones worth an estimated £181 million to China and Dubai. The Metropolitan Police described the […]
THREE men have been sentenced to prison terms for running Britain's biggest mobile phone smuggling ring.
The Independent
The Independent (US)Members of ‘UK’s largest mobile phone smuggling’ network jailed
Prosecutors said the men were part of a ‘sophisticated and organised criminal network’
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