THREE MEN JAILED FOR TRAFFICKING STOLEN PHONES TO CHINA

Three men have been jailed at Southwark Crown Court for trafficking stolen mobile phones out of the UK to China. Judge Adam Hiddleston sentenced Amir Khadikhel to nine and a half years, Ismat Miakhel to nine years, and Mansoor Mohammed to six and a half years on Friday. All three pleaded guilty to conspiracy to handle stolen goods and to participating in an organised crime group. Khadikhel, an Afghan asylum seeker, and Miakhel also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to remove stolen goods. The Metropolitan Police said the men were responsible for trafficking up to 40,000 stolen phones, most of them iPhones, during 2024 and 2025.

Prosecutors said the network was "sophisticated and organised" and facilitated the export of thousands of stolen devices. More than 5,000 phones worth an estimated £5.5 million were seized during the investigation. Police said street thieves were paid up to £300 per handset, with some devices selling for as much as US$5,000 in China. The investigation began in December 2024, when officers found 865 smartphones wrapped in tin foil, which can block signals, in boxes bound for Hong Kong at a warehouse near Heathrow Airport. The boxes were searched after a theft victim contacted DHL after tracking a stolen phone to the delivery firm's Heathrow site.

Judge Hiddleston said the offending was on an "enormous scale financially" and called it "highly organised and sophisticated". Police described the operation as the UK's largest mobile phone smuggling network. The force said the phones seized accounted for around 40 per cent of all phones stolen in London during the same period. Khadikhel gave an address in Wanstead, Miakhel in Walthamstow, and Mohammed in Wood Green, the court heard.