Female HK passenger caught for smuggling 20 iPhones

Photo: Ta Kung Pao

A female passenger from Hong Kong has been caught by Luohu Customs in Southern China's city of Shenzhen for trying to smuggle 20 Iphone 6 models into the mainland.

The officials say the woman caught their attention when she was walking with a peculiar posture while going through customs.

It turns out that the passenger used duct tape to trap 20 phones to her waist and abdomen.

Similar cases were also found earlier this month as two female passengers from Hong Kong used the same method to try to smuggle 26 phones and 23 phones respectively to the mainland.

According to the customs officials, apart from taping the phones to their bodies, the smugglers use other channels to transport the phones.

One channel of transporting the phones is to set up a pulley between one building situated in Shenzhen and another in Hong Kong, and attach plastic bags on the pulley to carry phones to Shenzhen under cover of darkness. This type of operation is usually found in Chung Ying Street, a street which lies on the border between Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

Other channels include digging underground tunnels to transport the phones.

A 64 gigabyte version of the Iphone 6 model can sell for about 820 US dollars in Hong Kong, but in the mainland it can go for more than 1,000 US dollars.

The price difference has created a lucrative black market.