A 61-year-old Chinese national was detained at the Man Kam customs office in Hong Kong, when attempting to leave the territory with 510,000 smuggled electronic components.
Within his merchandise, the Chinese man kept processors, SSD memories, cell phones and laptops.
He thought they would not notice
The devices were stored in at least 30 wooden crates inside the container of his truck.
He labeled the boxes as display panels, which pay less tax when crossing the border.
“This is the biggest case of smuggling by land transport since 2018,” explains senior inspector Wong Chi-man of Customs’ Cargo and Vehicle Processing Unit.
The truck driver was arrested and released on bail pending further investigation as it is not ruled out that he is just a simple carrier hired to carry the cargo.
A common crime
The hardware of PC costs much less in Hong Kong that in ChinaMany traders seek to smuggle units to earn more.
In December 2022, a woman was caught attempting to enter the China With more than 200 processors hidden in a fake pregnancy belly.
In March, a man was caught when he wanted to illegally bring 160 CPUs and 16 cell phones into the country, all attached to his body.
In 2021, a truck driver tried to get out of Hong Kong with 256 Intel computer processors (CPUs) glued to its body bound for Macau as contraband, but was intercepted by Customs.
Another CPU smuggling attempt, believed to be related to the third, was foiled just ten days later at the same crossing. This time, scanners detected 52 Intel chips, placed between the front seats.
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