Overview

• The year-long Operation Echosteep began after officers found about 1,000 stolen iPhones bound for Hong Kong at a Heathrow-area warehouse last December.
• A two-week crackdown led to 46 arrests across London and Hertfordshire, with two men in their 30s charged with handling stolen goods and remanded in custody.
• Searches recovered around 2,000 additional devices from linked properties, about £40,000 in cash at a phone shop, and items including two iPads, two laptops and two Rolex watches.
• Police say the network trafficked up to 40,000 stolen phones to China over 12 months—roughly 40% of all phones stolen in London—by focusing on Apple models.
• Detectives traced shipments using victim location data and parcel forensics while separate teams made 11 arrests over plots to rob courier vans delivering new iPhones.