The car with the 261 phone was stopped before it even reached the border. The man was confused in his explanations and did not have the necessary documents.
The car with the 261 phone was stopped before it even reached the border. The man was confused in his explanations and did not have the necessary documents.
A 62-year-old Ukrainian citizen was detained on the M3 highway near the city of Zagon (Hungary) while trying to illegally smuggle a batch of new iPhone and Samsung Galaxy smartphones, Mukachevo.net reports, citing the Hungarian Financial Police (NAV).
The man was driving an Audi with Ukrainian license plates and was stopped during a standard customs check. Five bags were found in the trunk, completely filled with new smartphones. A total of 261 devices. According to preliminary estimates, the total value of the seized items is about 100 million forints (over 10 million UAH).
The driver’s explanations were constantly changing. At first, he stated that he was not the owner of the phones, but was only transporting them from Budapest to Nyíregyháza. Later, he changed his statements and indicated a different city as the recipient. The man did not provide any documents confirming the legality of the goods being transported.
Customs officers also found that the devices had not been subject to a mandatory copyright fee: a fee for the use of media that have built-in data storage. In Hungary, such a fee is part of the copyright protection system and applies even to imported devices.
The financial police confiscated the phones, and a criminal case was opened against the driver under the article on copyright infringement.
Hungary has tightened control over equipment from abroad, especially that containing digital media. Cases of «gray» smuggling of smartphones are not uncommon, such shipments often go to EU countries through the Ukrainian-Hungarian section of the border. In addition to customs violations, such shipments are often accompanied by intellectual property violations.
We also previously wrote about how a bus driver tried to import a large shipment of smuggled mobile phones from abroad. Now he has neither more than 400 iPhones nor a bus.
