Smuggled iPhone 13 shipment worth 5 million USD was seized in India

Authorities at an airport in India have seized thousands of iPhones belonging to the new generation iPhone 13 series. The devices combined with a value of more than 5 million USD were seized at Mumbai airport.

DRI (Department of Indian Intelligence) conducted an investigation earlier and as a result 3,600 latest iPhones were seized at the airport. These iPhone 13s are being shipped from Hong Kong to India but are declared as “memory cards”.

According to a statement from DRI, they received intelligence and then DRI customs officers conducted an inspection of the shipments on November 26.

This shipment was imported from Hong Kong and was placed at the Air Cargo Complex (ACC) at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai, India. As mentioned above, goods import documents are declared as “memory cards”.

However, through physical inspection, the shipments actually contained a total of 3,646 iPhone 13 units. The total value of these iPhones fell to about $5.7 million.

Notably, Indian customs also discovered 12 newly launched Google Pixel 6 units, which have not been officially sold in the Indian market. There are also some other products like the Apple Watch. These iPhones were seized because they violated regulations on imported goods and showed signs of tax evasion.

Not to mention this behavior is extremely dangerous as it will affect the growth of India’s domestic industry, which has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Refer to Gizmochina