December 27, 2024

Apple Asks Chinese Authorities to Catch iPhone 6 Leakers Resulting in Massive Raid

Posted May 30, 2014 at 4:46pm by iClarified · 16597 views
Apple has asked Chinese authorities to catch those responsible for trying to leak the iPhone 6 and on May 27th a massive raid was conducted to catch smugglers in YuanWang Mall, reports Sonny Dickson.

Yesterday he tweeted:
Fact: Apple had asked Chinese authorities to catch those who are trying to leak i6.
There are about 200 security officers trying to catch those who dare to sell i6 accessories.

Today, Dickson followed up on his tweets to explain what happened:

On May 27th, Shen Zhen Customs (Shenzhen anti-smuggling governing body), and Hua Qiang street authorities, stormed the YuanWang Mall to try to catch some of those smugglers and whoever was said to sell Apple/Samsung/Nokia/etc units, or fake Apple/Samsung/Nokia units. More than 120 government officials are involved in this operation.

It's believed that Apple may have played a role in the raid, since they are able to track their serials & activations between HK and China.

There are three major smugglers and sellers who own 10 warehouses and 38 shops inside the mall. Over two thousand people witnessed the whole raid and thousands of Apple and Samsung products were confiscated. One smuggler had reported trafficked more than 10mil RMB (1.8mil USD) worth of goods since February, which may be on the low end.

It's believed that Apple didn't want to see iPhone 6 accessories making their way around the world prior to the device's launch, as was the case with the iPhone 5, 5s, and 5c.

Dickson says that Foxconn has been secretly selling old generation parts and disassembled Apple parts in Hong Kong. They've allegedly been doing this for 'a very, very long time.'

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