More than 5,000 phones worth £5.5 million were seized following an investigation into the defendants, a sentencing hearing for the trio at Southwark Crown Court heard.

Detectives found street thieves were being paid up to £300 per handset, with some devices later “selling for as much as 5,000 US dollars in China”.

Prosecutors said the men were part of a “sophisticated and organised criminal network” which facilitated the export of thousands of stolen devices, mostly iPhones, out of the UK.

Amir Khadikhel, 35, Ismat Miakhel, 33, and Mansoor Mohammed, 30, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to handle stolen goods and participating in criminal activities of an organised crime group.

Afghan asylum seeker Khadikhel and Miakhel, of The Drive, Walthamstow, also previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to remove stolen goods.

Judge Adam Hiddleston sentenced Khadikhel, of Eastway, Wanstead, to nine and a half years’ imprisonment; Miakhel to nine years’ imprisonment; and Mohammed to six and a half years’ imprisonment at Southwark Crown Court on Friday.

The judge said the offending was on an “enormous scale financially” and the criminality was “highly organised and sophisticated”.

The Metropolitan Police said the defendants were part of the “UK’s largest mobile phone smuggling network”, adding it was responsible for trafficking thousands of stolen devices to China.

The force’s investigation started in December 2024 when boxes being shipped to Hong Kong containing 865 smartphones wrapped in tin foil, which can block mobile and wifi signals, were found at a warehouse near Heathrow Airport.

The boxes were searched after a phone theft victim contacted DHL after they tracked their stolen device to the logistics firm’s Heathrow site.

Officers discovered that almost all of the phones in the boxes had been stolen – resulting in the launch of Operation Echosteep.

The investigation uncovered a supply chain of street-level thieves, handlers and exporters moving stolen devices out of the UK.

Detectives intercepted further shipments and used forensics found on packages to identify those involved.

In September 2025, police attended Roshan Dry Fruits and Nuts on Lea Bridge Road in east London to carry out a search of the shop and found it to be a “storage location to which both Khadikhel and Miakhel could be linked”, prosecutors said.

An open “trap door” in the shop led to a basement where police found smartphones wrapped in tin foil, as well as £44,665 in cash.

Khadikhel, of Eastway, Wanstead, and Miakhel were both wearing a necklace with a Sim extractor device attached when they were arrested in September 2025.

Miakhel’s phone was found to contain messages between December 2024 and May 2025 regarding payments totalling £243,050 to those providing stolen phones.

The court heard that Mohammed, of High Road, Wood Green, worked within the middle rung of the enterprise – collecting phones from thieves and moving them on to Khadikhel and Miakhel at a profit for himself.

Mohammed, who came to the UK from India on a visa in 2019, was arrested in September 2025 while driving a Toyota Estima which was found to contain six faraday bags, which block electromagnetic and radio frequencies, in the glove box, as well as seven rolls of tin foil and mobile phones.

The Indian national previously worked in a telephone repair shop which “put him into contact with people looking to sell obviously stolen telephones”, the court heard.

Prosecutor Karen Robinson KC said the men were part of a “sophisticated and organised criminal network” that “facilitated the export of thousands of valuable stolen mobile telephones, mostly iPhones, out of the UK”.

The prosecutor added that phone smuggling in London was “prolific” and a “very significant societal problem”.

Khadikhel had previously been arrested in March 2022 for handling stolen goods after officers found him in possession of 14 phones while wrapping devices in kitchen foil.

Mitigating for Khadikhel, Brian Kennedy said he had fled Afghanistan in 2019 and travelled to the UK as an asylum seeker, leaving his wife and two children behind.

The lawyer said Khadikhel “accepts knowing a significant number of phones were being handled and being exported” but was “unaware of the extent of the enterprise” and “struggles with mental health issues”.

Mitigating for Miakhel, Ronnie Bergenthal, said he had played a “significant role” but “did not have direct contact with those in charge of the operation”, adding he was “extremely sorry”.

Mitigating for Mohammed, Ben Irwin said he accepted he “sourced telephones and sold them on” but was “not a leader at all” in the enterprise.