On the 29th of last month, economic police in Vietnam’s Quang Ninh province pulled over a heavy freight truck at a toll plaza along the highway from Haiphong to Mong Cai. When officers popped open the back doors, they found 1,217 smuggled second-hand iPhones crammed inside, without a single customs paper in sight. Local media reported the haul was worth roughly 9 billion Vietnamese dong. The driver was heading into town to unload the phones onto the local market, but got caught cold at the toll booth without a scrap of legal documentation.
One of the suspects arrested, Hua Van Ngoc, admitted he was hired just to transport the goods. The used iPhones had all been smuggled across the border from China into Vietnam, and he was offered 80,000 dong for every unit he successfully delivered. To dodge customs inspectors and mobile checkpoints, the syndicate ran a well-coordinated effort, using quiet dirt tracks and mountain paths along the border where there are few eyes around. Out in these remote spots, small vehicles would quietly transfer the contraband under the cover of night whenever the coast was clear.
Police have now launched legal proceedings against seven people linked to the bust as they continue digging deeper into the wider smuggling network. Plenty of second-hand phone shops on the street rely on stock brought in through these murky border routes. Earning 80,000 dong per device might sound like easy money, but getting caught red-handed at a highway toll booth, losing the entire load, and ending up behind bars makes it a very costly gamble.
