Four men have been arrested following dawn raids.
The men are suspected to be members of a criminal gang accused of stealing more than £300,000 by befriending pubgoers and snatching their phones.
City of London Police said the arrests were made on suspicion of conspiracy to commit theft and conspiracy to commit fraud, allegedly carried out between September 2024 and December 2025.
Detective inspector Kev Hughes said: "These arrests demonstrate our determination to disrupt and dismantle organised crime groups who think they can profit from stealing people’s phones and accessing their bank accounts.
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"Phone snatching is not a victimless crime.
"In a matter of minutes, offenders can steal not only a device but someone’s money, personal data and sense of security.
"We have already reduced phone snatching by 40 per cent compared to last year and we will continue to use every tool at our disposal, from proactive patrols to complex financial investigations, to drive that figure down even further."
Three men, aged 21, 19 and 18, from north London and a 31-year-old man from north-west London were arrested and remain in custody.
The gang is alleged to have targeted people leaving pubs, befriending them and asking them to look something up on a map or to store a number.
Once the phones were unlocked, they were stolen and used to pay for expensive tech like mobile phones, as well as stealing thousands in cryptocurrency.
City of London Police is encouraging the public to activate advanced anti-theft features on their devices, secure financial apps behind biometric locks and shield PINs in public.
The force also offers a phone-marking service to improve the chances of recovery if a device is stolen.
Earlier this month, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley urged the telecoms and tech industries to make it more difficult for stolen phones to be reused.
He also called for courts to stop bailing repeat offenders, arguing it undermines police efforts to keep communities safe.
Both the Met and City of London Police have reported a year-on-year decline in phone theft incidents.
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