Smugglers use drones to smuggle smartphones into China

The Chinese authorities have arrested a total of 26 people on suspicion of smuggling smartphones. They used drones to secretly transport the devices from Hong Kong to mainland China.

That reports the Chinese Legal Daily. According to the site, the suspects smuggled 500 million yuan worth of smartphones from Hong Kong to China. They did this by using drones to stretch cables to establish a connection between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. The authorities have released some photos of the smuggling operation.

With the drone-established connection, the smugglers managed to smuggle about 15,000 smartphones into China every night by transporting them over the cable line from a high-rise apartment building. On the Hong Kong side, the cable ended up at an ordinary house.

Goods are smuggled more often between Hong Kong and China. That’s because in mainland China, a higher tax is levied on luxury goods. Hong Kong, which has its own government within China, has lower taxes.