The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus found by customs during that day is estimated to be worth around three million yuan, which is nearly $450,000.
Advertisement
Apple’s latest flagship iPhone 7 Plus 128G is priced at HK$7,388 ($952) per unit in Hong Kong, $125 cheaper than the pricetag of 7,188 yuan ($1077) in China.
The iPhone 7 was officially released on Friday and with the popular smartphone selling its bigger version fast, smugglers tried to make extra money by bringing them from Hong Kong to Shenzhen.
Shenzhen customs seized 400 of the handsets on its release day, according to Shanghai Daily. Travellers who bring an iPhone 7 to China for personal use will be levied tax of 15 percent of the pricetag, and those who bring excessive units of iPhone 7 to China without declaring to customs will be deemed as smuggling suspects, according to a Tencent report.
Smugglers were caught crossing over from Hong Kong to Shenzhen in southern China with phones hidden in their pants and tied around their waists, reports the People’s Daily Online.
The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus were released in United States on Friday. A report from the South China Morning Post revealed that some shopkeepers have offered to pay HK$20,000 for the 256GB jet black iPhone 7 Plus, which normally retails for HK$8,288, which means that when sold to customers we can only imagine it will be much more. That person had five new iPhones. But close to half of the 400 iPhones were confiscated later.
Advertisement
The customs office said that when items like these are confiscated they usually either put them up for public auction, transfer it to relevant authorities or destroy the items.
