HONG KONG: China is cautious about iPhone 6 smuggling as rules and regulations forbid such exports. And $2 million fine and seven years in prison will be borne as a penalty.
Hong Kong Customs have been busy seizing iPhone models from suspected smugglers. Chinese custom agents literally have their hands full with Apple’s iPhone 6, as they seize hundreds of units from smugglers attempting to bring them into the country. Many vendors are also relying on units coming from Hong Kong, the nearest city outside mainland China to officially sell the product.
Hong Kong Customs said they had stopped one such operation, seizing 67 iPhone 6s and four iPhone 6 Plus models. The suspected 31-year-old smuggler tried to bring in the phones by car, but was intercepted at a border checkpoint into mainland China, Hong Kong Customs said. Total value of the smuggled goods, which also included 60 used phone screens, was estimated at about HKD$400,000 (US$51,000).
The case was just one of several iPhone 6-related seizures Hong Kong customs made last week. Authorities foiled another suspected smuggling operation involving several men spotted on the coast loading boxes into a small boat. The suspects however fled to avoid customs agents, but left behind 286 iPhone 6 devices, for an estimated worth of HKD$1.6 million.
