Chinese man caught at customs with 160 Intel CPUs taped to his body
It’s not just GPUs that are being smuggled to avoid paying tax
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Chinese authorities have apprehended an individual for trying to evade customs with 160 Intel CPUs taped to his body, according to a report by Videocardz .
Lucrative items such as CPUs are heavily taxed in China, which requires you to pay a fee for import into the country or export out of the country. The man named Zeng or ‘the walking CPU’ as dubbed by Videocardz, will likely face a hefty fine for his actions.
The report by Videocardz quoted the Chinese Customs Office as saying:
“On March 9, the gate customs seized an entry case of a passenger hiding a central processing unit (CPU). At about 1am that day, a man named Zeng entered the country through the customs “no declaration channel” at the travel inspection site of Gongbei Port. Customs officers found that his walking posture was abnormal and stopped him for inspection. After further inspection, customs officers seized a total of 160 CPUs and a total of 16 folded mobile phones tied with tape on the inner side of his calf, waist and abdomen. At present, the case has been further processed in accordance with relevant regulations. The customs reminds that the luggage items that individuals bring in and out of the country should be limited to their own use and a reasonable quantity, and should be subject to customs supervision. For those who evade customs supervision by means of personal concealment or item storage, which constitute smuggling, the customs will investigate legal responsibility according to law.
A video of the incident was posted on microblogging site Weibo.
Zeng was caught with 160 Intel CPUs, mostly Intel’s Core i5-12600KF, which are currently in very high demand. These CPUs sell for around $330, which would make his haul worth an eye-watering $50k.
Zeng was also caught with 16 ‘folder phones’ although the model wasn’t specified. If they happened to be the new Galaxy Z flip3 phones, you can add another $16k to Zeng’s haul.
According to the Chinese customs office, Mr Zeng was apprehended when one of the customs officers noticed he was ‘walking abnormally’.
This may appear funny on the surface but is a crime and also a sign of how bad supply and demand currently is. If this is the sort of extremes people are going to just to earn a quick buck, then this needs to stop. More measures need to be put into place to make sure the right people get the right PC components, instead of having miners and data farmers buy them all up and leave nothing for the average consumer.
Zeng is definitely an exception and not the rule, but if anything, we hope this brings attention to how uneven the market is right now.
