510,000 CPUs, hard drives and more seized as smugglers continue to try to enter China

The recent shortage of chips has shown us how far people will go to get rare components and gadgets. Those who couldn’t wait for the new electronics were faced with hefty price tags, frustrating lottery systems, questionable vendors, and unreliable inventory. But just as people go to extreme lengths to buy technology, so can people go to extreme lengths to sell it.

In 2023, the gray market for PC components, including processors, SSDs and hard drives, as well as devices such as phones and computers, will flourish in mainland China. Just ask the customs agents in China and Hong Kong, who have been making arrests for the confiscation of technological equipment, including a shipment reportedly worth about $3.8 million received on Monday.

510,000 electronics seized

Hong Kong Customs announced the seizure of 508,000 PC parts, including processors, computer hard drives and RAM modules, with a market value estimated at about $3.5 million. There were also 2,000 electronic devices such as laptops, phones, dash cams, and touch screen styluses valued at around $255,000.

Customs officials reportedly discovered the equipment while checking a departing container ship at the Man Kam To checkpoint. Hong Kong Customs said it had arrested a 61-year-old truck driver “suspected of being involved in this case.”

Chief Inspector Wong Chi-man of Hong Kong Customs’ Cargo and Vehicle Handling Division said, according to Hong Kong’s The Standard, that “electronic products are presumed to have been brought to the mainland for resale or reassembly.”

“Customs will continue to crack down on cross-border smuggling by taking strong action based on risk assessment and intelligence analysis,”Hong Kong Customs said in a statement on Wednesday.

According to the announcement, perpetrators could face up to $2 million in fines and seven years in prison.

Awkward situation

A week and a half ago, Chinese customs made their own bust by measuring 239 processors that were wrapped with duct tape around the man’s thighs and abdomen. Judging by the images reportedly shared by customs (you can check them out on the website of the Chinese edition of MyDrivers), the batch included current-generation Intel Core i5-13400F consumer processors.

Customs spoke in detail about the incident on WeChat, according to MyDrivers. According to Google’s translation of the MyDrivers article, the alleged smuggler “entered the country through the ‘no-declaration channel’ of customs at the Gongbei port passenger screening hall. The customs officers found that he was wearing loose black clothes, he was bloated and looked abnormal, so he was intercepted for investigation.”

Macau, where the port of Gongbei is located, has reportedly become a popular entry point for goods smuggled into China.