Two men jailed for smuggling 800 iPhones

A court in Da Nang City sentenced Nguyen Van Cuong, 31, and Tran Dinh Viet, 33, to six and eight years in jail respectively on Wednesday, Cong An Nhan Dan newspaper reported.

According to the indictment, Viet hired Cuong to work for his company for a monthly salary of VND15 million in 2017 and asked him to fake customs papers to smuggle batches of iPhones 6S Plus from Hong Kong into Da Nang.

On September 29 the same year, police busted the smuggling ring operated by the duo and seized 200 iPhones 6S Plus worth VND3.2 billion ($137,694) at the Da Nang International Airport. Both were arrested later.

Investigations also revealed they had illegally transferred 617 other iPhones from Hong Kong into Vietnam through the airport a week before with the assistance of custom officials.

The accused told the police that they gave VND300 million to Le Nho Phuoc, a senior customs official at the airport, to help them to pass the security check, but Phuoc denied the allegations.

It took the police a long time to investigate the incident but they said they could not collect enough evidence to charge Phuoc with accepting bribes.