Met crackdown on gangs recruiting children to steal phones for money on Snapchat

Police deploys drones, e-bikes, and live facial recognition to catch phone thieves

Criminal gangs in the capital are recruiting children to steal the latest Apple iPhones in exchange for £380 using the social media platform, Snapchat.

Teenagers as young as 14 are being enticed by advertisements of cash rewards for different models of stolen mobile phones.

One Snapchat flyer seen by the police offered £380 for the latest iPhone 16 Max model, £220 for an iPhone 15 and £20 for an iPhone 12. Thieves would also be rewarded with £100 bonuses if they were able to steal ten or more phones in one drop, as reported by The Guardian.

The most expensive prizes were offered for newest Apple phones, because the Met believes they are less protected and thus easier to ship overseas and reactivate for international markets in the Gulf and China. However, Samsung phones were afforded less because they were harder to reactivate for overseas use.

Once stolen, the child thieves were then told to message a “handler” on Snapchat to arrange the exchange.

In response to the growing problem, the Met Police is deploying drones, Sur-Ron e-bikes, and live facial recognition, to catch phone thieves in its largest ever crackdown on phone thefts (Met Office)

In response to the growing problem, the Met Police is deploying drones to capture evidence, Sur-Ron e-bikes to outpace fleeing criminals, and live facial recognition in its largest ever crackdown on phone thefts. The Met is also expanding its fleet of e-bikes, with 20 additional Sur‑Rons due to arrive in the coming months and all the riders are highly trained.

London is one of the most notorious cities in the UK for phone thieves to strike and so the Met Police has targeted their efforts to cut mobile phone theft offences in the city by 10,000 in the past year.

Over the last four weeks alone, officers made 248 arrests related to phone theft and seized about 770 stolen phones as part of intensified activity across London to identify and arrest suspects. A further 122 people were arrested for other offences as part of the wider operation.

As a result, mobile phone theft offences in London have dropped from 81,365 in 2024 to 71,391 last year – a fall of about 12.3 per cent.

Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said: “We are relentlessly cracking down on phone thieves and dismantling organised criminal networks at every level – from the pickpockets and phone snatchers operating on our streets, to the handlers who profit from their crimes, right through to the international networks exporting stolen phones overseas.”

As a result, phone theft offences in London have dropped from 81,365 in 2024 to 71,391 last year – a fall of about 12.3 per cent (Met Office)

Mr Rowley also called on manufacturers and tech companies to do more to stop criminals from being able to reset, reuse or resell stolen phones as said “policing alone cannot solve this problem.”

He added: “We also need the courts to play their part by preventing repeat offenders being bailed only to go out and offend again, undermining the hard work officers are doing to keep communities safe.”

Commander Andrew Featherstone, the Met’s lead for tackling phone theft, said the new “tactics are delivering results” citing how in “hotspot areas such as the West End, theft is already down by 30 per cent since April last year.”

Mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan, said: “Thanks to record funding from City Hall, the Met is investing in new state of the art technology to turbo-charge their efforts to bear down and be tough on mobile phone crime.

“But we know there is still more to do. Which is why as Mayor I’ll continue to prioritise neighbourhood policing and will continue to push the mobile phone industry to go much further in preventing stolen phones being used, sold and repurposed, building a safer London for everyone.”

A spokesperson for Snapchat said: "Using Snapchat to organise and promote any illegal activity including theft is strictly against our rules. If we discover this activity, we will take action on the account.

“We encourage people to report any instances of illegal activity using our in-app reporting tools. We also continue supporting law enforcement investigations to help keep this activity off our platform and bring criminals to justice."