The UK Metropolitan Police on Tuesday said they have busted a criminal gang suspected of smuggling thousands of stolen phones from the UK to China.

In a statement, the police said they busted “a criminal network suspected to have smuggled up to 40,000 stolen phones from the UK to China over the past 12 months.”

The criminal gang, according to the UK police, was responsible for up to 40 per cent of all phones stolen in London. The police said that around 80,000 devices were stolen in London last year.

Detective Inspector Mark Gavin said, “Finding the original shipment of phones was the starting point for an investigation that uncovered an international smuggling gang, which we believe could have been responsible for exporting up to 40 per cent of all the phones stolen in London.

He added, “This group specifically targeted Apple products because of their profitability overseas. We discovered street thieves were being paid up to £300 per handset and uncovered evidence of devices being sold for up to $5,000 in China.”

According to the police, the arrests are a result of an investigation that began last December when a box containing around a thousand iPhones, being shipped to Hong Kong, was found at a warehouse near Heathrow Airport.

The police further said, “Officers discovered almost all of the phones had been stolen, and this resulted in the launch of Operation Echosteep. Specialist detectives—who would ordinarily investigate armed robberies and drug smuggling—were brought in to track down the suspects.”

The police said they have carried out two weeks of targeted and precise activity in response to phone theft, resulting in 46 arrests.