Last month, a 12 year-old girl was caught trying to smuggle iPhones into Shenzhen, China from Hong Kong.
While the iPhone is assembled in China, there is considerable demand for the product in the Mainland. This has led to the birth of smugglers bringing the iPhone back into the country.
According to recent Chinese news reports, the girl was dressed in a school uniform, but did not carry her school bag as she crossed through Sha Tau Kok Control Point—the immigration between Hong Kong and Mainland China.
Immigration officials noticed that the girl seemed nervous and pulled her aside. They discovered 30 iPhones sewed into her skirt. This wasn't the girl's ideas, but her mother's.
A smuggler told the girl's mother that it's possible to earn around US$2.60 for each phone smuggled into China. The mother decided to have her kids bring in the phones to make this extra money.
Increasingly, more and more young students are being caught smuggling iPhones back into China through the Sha Tau Kok Control Point. In March, one schoolgirl was caught with iPhones taped her legs and lower back.
母亲竟唆使12岁女儿走私手机/12岁学童绑藏走私手机30部入境 [NDDaily/Guangzhou Daily via M.I.C. Gadget]