Man arrested for smuggling over 700 iPhones from Singapore

Ngo Thach Hao, 33, was caught at HCMC's Tan Son Nhat airport with 246 iPhones carried from Singapore. The collection included used iPhones 12, 13 and brand new iPhones 14.

A search at his house in the city found another 463 iPhones.

The phones were worth more than VND10 billion ($414,165), police said.

Ngo Thach Hao at a HCMC police station, with the iPhones he smuggled from Singapore, October 13, 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Nhat Vy

Hao said he was hired to smuggle used phones from Singapore to Vietnam for a price of VND2 million a trip.

Some people in Singapore would deliver the phones to him at Changi airport or his hotel in Singapore, he said.

The phones are to be sold in Vietnam.

Police said Hao had traveled to Singapore more than 10 times from early September for the smuggling.

An investigation is going on.