Drones have the potential to be a great boon to mankind. They have begun to be used to carry medical supplies in out of the way places or in disaster ravaged areas and have already saved many lives. Unfortunately there are always people who abuse technology to smuggle goods and use it for their own nefarious purposes.
Chinese authorities at the end of March have busted a smuggling operation that used drones to move approximately 80 million dollars worth of refurbished smartphones from Hong Kong to the neighboring city of Shenzhen. The drones were used to carry 660 foot long cables to connect Hong Kong to the Chinese mainland and bags were then attached. These bags could hold up to 10 iPhones and it was possible for these smugglers to move as many as 15,000 phones in one night.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of the richest and most vibrant cities in the world. It is also one of the largest cities in the world with a population of 7.4 million people. It was formerly a British colony until 1997 and is treated as a Special Administrative Zone by the Chinese government so it maintains its own legislature and judiciary separate from the Communist Party. It has its own currency and English is still an official language. The standard of living there is much higher and Apple maintains a large presence in the city.
Shenzhen
Shenzhen is also one of the largest cities in the world with a population of over 10 million people and is the third largest economy in China after Beijing and Shanghai. It is a major manufacturing and financial power in the country and is headquarters to many high-tech firms. It is a Special Economic Zone making it a fertile location for startups and international investment, the perfect place for people who may need a smartphone.
Why there?
The two cities are separated by the Sham Chun River with nine different crossing points between the two. Due to Hong Kong’s special status there is customs enforcement just like there would be crossing an international border. It is estimated that nearly 200,000 people cross the border daily and Chinese citizens can do it a biometric ID card and a thumbprint reader.
The iPhone is extremely in popular in China as there are more iPhones in use there than in the US. Government estimates in 2015 believe that there were as many as 780 million smartphones in use in the country with about 130 million of them being iPhones. With unlocked models being readily available the country’s burgeoning middle class has been buying them up. While Apple’s popularity has waned in recent years the iPhone is still attractive which makes the smuggling operation much more lucrative.
Drone issues
China has already required the owners of drones over 55 pounds to register them and to prove their identity. In China like here in the US they have had a number of incidents with drones interfering with aircraft operation that have resulted in several crashes.
This was a fairly large smuggling operation with 26 people involved. They worked after midnight and could do as many as 1,500 runs in a night since each run required only seconds to complete. No word has been released on how they were caught but Shenzhen uses drones of its own for customs enforcement and to monitor for smuggling so it is a pretty good bet that a drone got them. At the very least this is the first documented case of a drone being used for smuggling in China but the use of drones has already been documented for smuggling drugs over the US/Mexico border near San Diego.
At the very least perhaps this may explain why smartphone purchases in China have begun to decline. We’ll see if it picks back up now.