More than 1,000 stolen phones were seized and 230 people arrested in a week-long blitz as Scotland Yard fights back against London’s phone theft epidemic.
The Met Police carried out the targeted operation as the force ramps up its bid to bring an end to the marauding phone thieves who prowl around the city on e-bikes and mopeds.
The £50million-a-year crimewave has threatened to spiral out of control in recent years with crooks raking in the cash by selling the stolen devices on British soil or abroad.
Now the force is using plain-clothed officers and phone-tracking data to gather intelligence and hunt down the smartphone snatchers plaguing the capital’s streets.
During one arrest in north-east London, a 15-year-old boy riding an illegal e-bike was found with a ‘large’ knife and £1,000 in cash.
An increase in patrols and operations have been carried out in hotspot areas, including the West End and Westminster, where the Met says nearly 40 per cent of phone thefts occur.
Officers have used the tactics and victims’ reports to snare a gang who were caught handling more than 5,000 stolen phones.
Over an 18-month period, Zakaria Senadjki, 31, Ahmed Abdelhakim Belhanafi, 25, Nazih Cheraitia, 34, and Riyadh Mamouni, 25, were at the centre of the terrifying trend of gadget grabbing sweeping the capital.
The £50million-a-year phone theft crimewave has threatened to spiral out of control in recent years with crooks raking in the cash by selling the stolen devices on British soil or abroard
Bodycam footage showed Met Police officers arresting phone snatcher Claude Wilkinson in May 2023
The force is using plain-clothed officers and phone-tracking data to gather intelligence and hunt down the smartphone snatchers plaguing our streets
Their crimes totalled a whopping £5.1million, an investigation by the Met Police found – with many of the devices believed to have been sold abroad.
The four men were all jailed in November last year to a combined total of 18 years behind bars.
It comes as Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will today chair a summit with law enforcement bodies and industry focused on tackling smartphone thefts.
Commander Owain Richards, who is leading the Met’s response to phone thefts, said: ‘By intensifying our efforts we’re catching more perpetrators and protecting people from having their phone stolen in the capital.
‘But we need help from partners and industry to do more. That is why we’re working with other agencies and government to tackle the organised criminality driving this trade and calling on tech companies to make stolen phones unusable.’
MailOnline last November published videos of ruthless thieves circling around London’s exclusive areas in mopeds and e-bikes.
Speeding around corners and catching locals and tourists off guard, they pounced within seconds, leaving unwitting victims with zero time to react before they realise what has happened.
A masked gang riding e-bikes snatched a phone from a woman at a bus stop
A police helicopter helped track down the thieves from Westminster to Islington
CCTV footage showed phone thief Amari Scott mount a pavement in Croydon on March 6 before snatching a woman’s phone
He was found less than an hour later when officers used real-time phone tracking data. He was in possession of two stolen phones and a stolen motorbike, and was jailed for four years
Kaya Comer-Schwartz, London’s Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, said personal robbery was down 13 per cent in the capital compared to figures in the same period last year.
But she admitted ‘there is more to do’, saying: ‘As the criminal demand for high-value mobile phones continues to grow globally, the Mayor and I are clear that companies must go further and faster to make it harder for stolen phones to be sold on, repurposed and re-used illegally.
‘We’ll continue to work with leading mobile phone companies, the Home Secretary and Met leaders to find innovative solutions to end the scourge of mobile phone crime.
‘Increased patrols in Westminster saw 17 arrests for robbery and theft, following 42 Stop and Searches linked to the Met’s intensive activity.
‘In Hackney and Haringey, officers made 15 arrests linked to the operation, including a 15-year-old boy on an illegal electric bike who was found with £1,000 in cash and a large knife.
‘The success in tackling phone thefts comes after the Met moved out of special measures last month, following major improvements in many areas of service to London.
Ahmed Abdelhakim Belhanafi, 25, (right) and Nazih Cheraitia, 34, (left) were both been jailed last year for their part in a phone snatching criminal group
Pictured: Some of the phones recovered from a raid on an address linked to the group on February 26
More than 5,000 stolen phones were handled by the group over an 18-month period
Zakaria Senadjki, 31 (left) and Zakaria Senadjki, 31 (right) have both been jailed for their part in the criminal group
Pictured: Some of the phones recovered from a raid on an address linked to the group on February 26
‘These include responding more quickly to emergencies and strengthening neighbourhood policing to better respond to communities’ concerns, including tackling theft and robberies.
‘The Met is urging anyone who has lost or had stolen a phone to use the national mobile phone register so recovered handsets can be restored, via The Police National Mobile Property Register.’
Met Police figures suggested a mobile phone was stolen in the capital every six minutes in 2023 in a seemingly uncontrollable surge.
Robberies had risen more than a third between October 2020 and September 2024. But thefts – under which snatching would fall – had almost tripled from 23,106 in the year to September 2021 to 66,528 three years later.
