UK police hit criminal gang suspected of smuggling stolen phones to China

LONDON: London police said they have broken up a criminal gang suspected of smuggling 40,000 stolen mobile phones to China in their largest operation against phone theft to date, resulting in 46 arrests over the last two weeks.

The gang could be behind about 40% of all the phone theft in London, police said, which like other global cities has seen a surge in the number of devices stolen in recent years, driven by a lucrative international market and facilitated by fast getaways on e-bikes.