Three jailed for smuggling up to 40,000 stolen phones out of the UK
Three men have been jailed for a combined 25 years after a Metropolitan Police investigation found them responsible for trafficking up to 40,000 stolen mobile phones to China.
Three men have been jailed for a combined 25 years after the Metropolitan Police found them responsible for trafficking up to 40,000 stolen mobile phones from the UK to China in 2024 and 2025.
The force described the men as part of the “UK’s largest mobile phone smuggling network”, and said the haul is believed to account for around 40 per cent of all phones stolen in London during that period.
Amir Muhammad Khadikhel, 35, of Eastway, Wanstead, was sentenced to nine and a half years; Ismat Miakhel, 33, of The Drive, Walthamstow, to nine years; and Mansoor Mohammed, 30, of High Road, Wood Green, to six and a half years. They appeared for sentencing at Southwark Crown Court on Friday, 25 September, after pleading guilty in April to conspiracy to receive stolen mobile phones, conspiracy to transfer or export them, and participating in an organised crime group.
The investigation, codenamed Operation Echosteep, began in December 2024 when a box containing around a thousand iPhones bound for Hong Kong was found at a warehouse near Heathrow Airport. Officers discovered almost all of the phones had been stolen. More than 5,000 phones worth £5.5 million were seized during the investigation, mostly iPhones, while street thieves were paid up to £300 per handset and devices were later sold for as much as $5,000 in China.
Judge Adam Hiddleston told the court the offending was on an “enormous scale financially” and the criminality was “highly organised and sophisticated”.
Commander Andy Featherstone, the Met’s lead for tackling mobile phone theft, said the sentences send a clear message and noted phone theft has fallen by a fifth across London this year.
Sources
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