Woman Fake Pregnancy to Smuggle Hundreds of CPUs to China • The Register

If you think you can trick customs officials into thinking you’re pregnant and not, in fact, smuggle hundreds of Intel processors and iPhones in a prosthesis strapped to your belly, think again.

That’s what a woman learned when she attempted such a feat at the customs checkpoint at Gongbei Port in China, according to multiple newscast.

We were told the woman was entering the mainland from Macau on November 25 when a customs officer noticed and then inquired about her abnormal condition. The woman said she was five or six months pregnant, but the inspector was apparently suspicious because her belly looked large enough to be in her third trimester.

Under normal circumstances, it would probably not be wise to scrutinize the appearance of a woman allegedly pregnant, but when customs officials used a inspection machine, they said they discovered the woman was not expecting and was in fact using a prosthesis to disguise 202. Intel chips and nine iPhones.

The woman was arrested, according to customs officials.

【🉐 孕婦成功誔下 202 顆 CPU 】一名孕婦從澳門經珠海拱北海關被攔查時，報稱自已懷孕 5 個月，但由於肚子異常巨大引起懷疑，發現這名孕婦使用矽膠肚兜，內藏 202 顆 Intel 處理器 及 9 台 iPhone 手機 ......... 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/q0CSderb44

— HKEPC (@hkepcmedia) December 2, 2022

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of smugglers trying to sneak hundreds of processors through Chinese customs checkpoints.

For example, in a few weeks during the summer of 2021, Chinese customs officials Three truck drivers arrested Try to smuggle chips.

Similar to this latest incident, Chinese customs agents discovered one truck driver last year with 256 Intel CPUs worth 800,000 yuan (currently $115,000) strapped to his wheels and around his torso.

The smuggling incidents are part of a large semiconductor gray market in China that emerged in 2020 when disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult to obtain chips. While some of the chip shortages have eased elsewhere, the supply situation in China has become more complicated because recent penalties By the United States aims to limit the country’s access to advanced chips and semiconductor equipment.

according to bloombergChina’s semiconductor gray market consists of hundreds of sellers known to sell used or old chips at up to 500 times their original cost.

As for iPhones, smuggling such devices into mainland China has been a thing for some time due to high import taxes which are becoming more expensive than surrounding areas like Hong Kong.

As they did with computer chips, smugglers have tried to bypass Apple devices for customs officials by attaching a bunch of them to their bodies, like this guy who It contains 94 units On his own in 2015.

Now that we can check “woman fake pregnancy to smuggle chips and phones” off the list, we wonder what other creative ways people will try to smuggle high-tech goods. Undoubtedly, there are successful examples that we will never hear about. ®