The Tigard police in Oregon have busted a crime ring that were attempting to smuggle more than 470 iPhones to Hong Kong. The Tigard police was first tipped of a man buying iPhones exclusively through gift cards on December 4 at the Washington Square mall.
On following that suspicious man, investigators found more than 470 iPhones totalling $290,000 and Apple gift cards worth $585,000 in his car. These gift cards were apparently purchased using fake credit cards and were being used by the criminals to purchase iPhones.
Once the culprit was nabbed, he agreed to cooperate and help find the investigators his accomplices. This soon led the police and investigators to a FedEx store where hundreds of boxes of iPhones were found that were due to be shipped to Hong Kong.
Once the phones would have landed in Hong Kong, they could have been easily smuggled to China where they would have been sold through grey channels. Despite the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus being sold in China, Chinese consumers don’t mind buying it from grey market as it would turn out to be a cheaper option for them.
This is not the first time that people trying to smuggle iPhones were busted. Earlier this year, a man with 94 iPhones taped to his body was caught at the Futian airport in China. Last year, smugglers used Twinkies boxes to smuggle the iPhone 6 into China.
[Via Portland Tribune]
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