Officials have said that the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has seized consignments of 3,646 latest models of iPhones at the Air Cargo Complex (ACC) at the Mumbai international airport on Sunday. The iPhones have been suspected to have been smuggled into the country from Hong Kong. In the import documents accompanying these two consignments, the goods were declared as “memory cards”.
The mobile phones and the Apple smart watch were not declared in the imported goods under the Customs Act.
On further examination on Friday, it revealed that the consignments actually contained 2,245 handsets of iPhone 13 Pro, 1,401 handsets of iPhone 13 Pro Max, 12 handsets of Google Pixel 6 pro and one Apple Smart Watch. They collectively valued at Rs 42.86 crore, whereas the declared value of these goods was only Rs 80 lakh.
The detection of attempted smuggling of these high-end phones of the latest models in such large numbers shows how quickly the smugglers establish their smuggling networks for the latest products, like iPhone 13, an official release said.
“This detection has helped unearth a serious import fraud having substantial revenue implications,” it added
