Crime blotter: How the mastermind of U.K. iPhone thefts was caught
Amir Khadikhel has been identified as the mastermind behind a U.K. gang that smuggled over 60,000 stolen iPhones worth £181 million to China and Dubai. He was caught after a victim used a tracking app to locate a stolen phone in a DHL depot near Heathrow, leading to the dismantling of the smuggling network. Khadikhel and two others are set to be sentenced on May 12, while other Apple-related crimes include an ex-deputy's arrest for AirTag stalking and a Seattle man's 17-month sentence for iPad thefts.
- ▪Amir Khadikhel supervised a network that shipped over 60,000 stolen iPhones abroad, accounting for up to 40% of iPhone thefts in London.
- ▪The investigation began when a victim traced his stolen iPhone to a DHL depot containing over a thousand devices bound for Hong Kong.
- ▪A Volusia County deputy in Florida was arrested for placing AirTags in his ex-partner's and her daughter's vehicles to stalk them.
- ▪David Anthony Burke, known as D4vd, is accused of possessing child sex abuse images on his iCloud account, though not yet charged for that.
- ▪A Seattle man was sentenced to 17 months in prison after pleading guilty to organized retail theft and second-degree theft for stealing three iPads from a Fred Meyer store.
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News Crime blotter: How the mastermind of U.K. iPhone thefts was caught Stephen Silver 0 e-mail BlueSky Mastodon X Facebook Reddit Sun May 03 2026, 07:08 AM EDT · 5 minute read Apple Store Town Center The iCloud account of an accused murderer contained sex abuse images, a deputy is arrested for AirTag stalking, and a man gets 17 months for iPad thefts, all in this week's Apple Crime Blotter. This is the latest in an occasional AppleInsider series, looking at the world of Apple-related crime. How the "mastermind" of U.K. iPhone thefts was caughtA man named Amir Khadikhel has been identified as the "mastermind" of a gang that arranged for more than 60,000 stolen iPhones to be shipped abroad from the U.K.
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