Hong Kong and Shenzhen Authorities Halt iPhone Smuggling Operation

Authorities have stopped a cross-border gang who used a system of drones, giant motorized wheels and cables to smuggle more than HK $620 million worth of mobile phones between Hong Kong and the mainland.

Officials arrested 26 people in Shenzhen and seized two drones, two wheels and 4,000 mobile phones worth HK $20 million. In Hong Kong, customs officers confiscated 900 phones worth HK $4.5 million and arrested three men near the boundary fence. The sophisticated gang, who authorities said had been operating for the past six months, used the drones to fly two 100-metre cables between two high-rise buildings on Yangfang Road in Shenzhen and the roof of a village house on the opposite side of the border.

Chen Liang, deputy chief of the Wenjindu branch of Shenzhen’s anti-smuggling bureau, said the gang worked from midnight to 5am each morning in an effort to avoid detection. Cables were used to carry the phones over the boundary fence. The three men in Hong Kong were arrested on suspicion of exporting un-manifested cargo – an offence that carries up to seven years in prison and a HK $2 million fine under the Import and Export Ordinance. A local government source said it took less than a minute to deliver a bag of 20 mobile phones from Hong Kong to Shenzhen, with the gang making more than 200 passes on each cable wire a night.

While announcing the details of the February 1 police operation on Thursday, Chen described how the gang flew two drones from two high-rise flats to deliver cable wires across the border, and the wires were secured at the roof of a village house in Hong Kong. The cable wires were then attached to two giant motorized conveyance wheels in the two flats. Bags carrying smuggled goods were tied to the two cable wires at the roof of the village house before being pulled across the border.
Mainland authorities believe the gang had smuggled 500 million yuan (HK$620 million) worth of second-hand mobile phones, mostly iPhones, across the border, evading 100 million yuan in tax. Demand for the newest phone technology continues to grow in China, with several companies offering copycat iPhones to consumers for a fraction of the cost of the real thing. [Source: SCMP]