October 7, 2025 • 4 mins
UK police say they've cracked down on an international gang suspected of smuggling up to 40,000 stolen mobile phones from the UK to China over the last year.
In what authorities claim is the UK's largest ever operation against phone thefts, 18 suspects have been arrested and more than 2,000 stolen devices discovered.
UK correspondent Enda Brady reveals more about this case.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hither.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I don't even touch my phone. I just say, grok,
what's the weather tomorrow? There you go, fourteen away from
seven Indo Brady, UK corresponding, Hello, Inda, Hey, Heather.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
I can tell you it's raining here in Istanbul today.
If anyone's interested.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
You in a Stambul because you're working in a Stanbul,
I am this week.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yeah, I'm filming my TV show here and yeah it
was beautiful yesterday twenty two Celsius and sunny and I've
just been there for a little jog this morning here
and it is lashing rain.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
When you're there. Do you just drink all of the
apple tea?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Oh my god? They can make tea of anything here
is absolutely stunning, the food, the spices. If anyone has
planning a big trip in twenty twenty six, putt is
Stanbul on your list. It is stunning.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Good place to go. Now listen, how big was that
phone smuggling gang?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah, this an extraordinary story in the papers this morning.
So back in London we know mobile phone theft has
been off the charts for about two years. Metropolitan Police
have made a series of arrests. They haven't put out
the names of who's been rested. There will be trials
in due course, but they're letting everyone know that this
one gang that they've now dismantled was responsible for about
(01:07):
forty percent forty percent of all mobile phone theft and
crime in the Capitol last year. In the past twelve months,
police estimate this gang had stolen, packaged, and shipped forty
thousand most the iPhones to China, a multi million dollar industry.
(01:27):
So the thieves on motorbikes wearing the ballet lavas and
these souped up scooters, they were getting about six hundred
dollars per device stolen. Police tracked down two guys who
they believe were the ring leaders of the gangs. They
put some surveillance on them and they observed them buying
two kilometers of tinfoil. So your phone gets stolen, they're
wrapped in tinfoil so it can't be traced, and then
(01:49):
they're packaging it up and then it's put on a
plane and it's off to China. So police very very confident. Look,
my concern is that this is like a many headed Medusa.
These two guys that have been arrested, there will be
more snakes will pop up, but forty thousand devices they
had shipped to China in the past twelve months.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
It's quite something, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Now?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Jilly Cooper has obviously died. Was Camilla a friend of his.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Huge friend, lifelong friend and a big fan, and they'd
been together recently at a very special Queen's Reading Room festival.
It was called, I think, just huge shock because well
she wasn't ill. We know she died in a fall.
But she'd had quite a resurgence in the last twelve
to eighteen months because one of her books was made
into a TV series called Rivals. And I have to say,
(02:35):
hand on heart, if I swear if I was in prison,
in solitary confinement and someone said there's a Jilly Cooper novel,
I probably wouldn't have picked it up. I'm just being
honest here. Rivals came on the TV and I read
a couple of the reviews and everyone's saying, you have
to watch this. It was glorious, it was fun, it
was brilliant, and I got to the stage when I
(02:56):
was running out of episodes to watch, I thought, am
I the kind of man who's going to end up
buying a Jilly Cooper novel? I thought it was brilliant,
So good on her. I think she sold eleven million
novels in the UK in her lifetime. Great character and
I love the tribute from Camilla which ended with the
words she said, may her hereafter be full of impossibly
handsome men and devoted dogs. What a nice line.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
That is a lovely line. Now, yeah, this is really
said about Lewis Moody, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Yeah, Morton, you're on a diagnosis yesterday, out of the blue,
and he's known about it for a couple of weeks.
He let everyone know yesterday. I mean England rugby legend
and from everyone I speak to in the rugby journalism world,
one of the good guys. Just what you see is
what you get. And the one picture that jumps out
from all the English newspapers today it was taking that
glorious trip two thousand and three when England won the
(03:48):
World Cup beating Australian in their own backyard. The England
boys had a day off. They were on the Gold
Coast and they went to an amusement park and there's
a picture of Lewis Moody going down a water slide
with one of the England boys holding on to him
and they just looked like well it was the time
of their lives and just so many positive words of
encouragement to Lewis Moody today, but yet another rugby star
(04:11):
with motor.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Neuron disease unfortunately, Inda, thanks so much man, We'll talk
to you again in a couple of days. It's into
Brady are UK correspondent.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive. Listen live to
news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
Hither.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I don't even touch my phone. I just say, grok,
what's the weather tomorrow? There you go, fourteen away from
seven Indo Brady, UK corresponding, Hello, Inda, Hey, Heather.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
I can tell you it's raining here in Istanbul today.
If anyone's interested.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
You in a Stambul because you're working in a Stanbul,
I am this week.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yeah, I'm filming my TV show here and yeah it
was beautiful yesterday twenty two Celsius and sunny and I've
just been there for a little jog this morning here
and it is lashing rain.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
When you're there. Do you just drink all of the
apple tea?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Oh my god? They can make tea of anything here
is absolutely stunning, the food, the spices. If anyone has
planning a big trip in twenty twenty six, putt is
Stanbul on your list. It is stunning.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Good place to go. Now listen, how big was that
phone smuggling gang?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah, this an extraordinary story in the papers this morning.
So back in London we know mobile phone theft has
been off the charts for about two years. Metropolitan Police
have made a series of arrests. They haven't put out
the names of who's been rested. There will be trials
in due course, but they're letting everyone know that this
one gang that they've now dismantled was responsible for about
(01:07):
forty percent forty percent of all mobile phone theft and
crime in the Capitol last year. In the past twelve months,
police estimate this gang had stolen, packaged, and shipped forty
thousand most the iPhones to China, a multi million dollar industry.
(01:27):
So the thieves on motorbikes wearing the ballet lavas and
these souped up scooters, they were getting about six hundred
dollars per device stolen. Police tracked down two guys who
they believe were the ring leaders of the gangs. They
put some surveillance on them and they observed them buying
two kilometers of tinfoil. So your phone gets stolen, they're
wrapped in tinfoil so it can't be traced, and then
(01:49):
they're packaging it up and then it's put on a
plane and it's off to China. So police very very confident. Look,
my concern is that this is like a many headed Medusa.
These two guys that have been arrested, there will be
more snakes will pop up, but forty thousand devices they
had shipped to China in the past twelve months.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
It's quite something, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Now?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Jilly Cooper has obviously died. Was Camilla a friend of his.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Huge friend, lifelong friend and a big fan, and they'd
been together recently at a very special Queen's Reading Room festival.
It was called, I think, just huge shock because well
she wasn't ill. We know she died in a fall.
But she'd had quite a resurgence in the last twelve
to eighteen months because one of her books was made
into a TV series called Rivals. And I have to say,
(02:35):
hand on heart, if I swear if I was in prison,
in solitary confinement and someone said there's a Jilly Cooper novel,
I probably wouldn't have picked it up. I'm just being
honest here. Rivals came on the TV and I read
a couple of the reviews and everyone's saying, you have
to watch this. It was glorious, it was fun, it
was brilliant, and I got to the stage when I
(02:56):
was running out of episodes to watch, I thought, am
I the kind of man who's going to end up
buying a Jilly Cooper novel? I thought it was brilliant,
So good on her. I think she sold eleven million
novels in the UK in her lifetime. Great character and
I love the tribute from Camilla which ended with the
words she said, may her hereafter be full of impossibly
handsome men and devoted dogs. What a nice line.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
That is a lovely line. Now, yeah, this is really
said about Lewis Moody, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Yeah, Morton, you're on a diagnosis yesterday, out of the blue,
and he's known about it for a couple of weeks.
He let everyone know yesterday. I mean England rugby legend
and from everyone I speak to in the rugby journalism world,
one of the good guys. Just what you see is
what you get. And the one picture that jumps out
from all the English newspapers today it was taking that
glorious trip two thousand and three when England won the
(03:48):
World Cup beating Australian in their own backyard. The England
boys had a day off. They were on the Gold
Coast and they went to an amusement park and there's
a picture of Lewis Moody going down a water slide
with one of the England boys holding on to him
and they just looked like well it was the time
of their lives and just so many positive words of
encouragement to Lewis Moody today, but yet another rugby star
(04:11):
with motor.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Neuron disease unfortunately, Inda, thanks so much man, We'll talk
to you again in a couple of days. It's into
Brady are UK correspondent.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive. Listen live to
news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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