Chinese customs stopped the man after noticing he was walking abnormally.
A man in China was recently caught trying to smuggle 160 PC processors by taping them to his body. The man, identified as Zeng, was nabbed last week as he tried to cross into China, according to Chinese customs. Local officials decided to stop him after noticing he was walking strangely.
The man claimed he had no goods he needed to declare. But in reality, he was carrying tens of thousands of dollars worth of silicon under his clothes.
“After further inspection, customs officers confiscated a total of 160 CPUs and a total of 16 foldable mobile phones that had been tied with tape to his inner calf, waist and abdomen,” Chinese customs announced on social media, dubbing the man the «walking CPU.»
Officials also uploaded a video of the man and the chips he tried to smuggle. A picture shows one of the CPUs was Intel’s latest 12th Generation Core processors, the i5-12600KF.
Taping CPUs to your body may seem bizarre. But it’s a common way merchants can avoid paying import duties on electronics they seek to bring into China to sell to local customers. Last year, customs officials in the country caught another man trying to smuggle 256 Intel processors by taping them to his legs and torso.
In years past, Chinese smugglers have also resorted to taping dozens of iPhones to their bodies to bring them into the country.
Chinese customs officials are now using the latest smuggling case to remind visitors that any gifts brought in and out of the country “should be limited to their own personal use and to a reasonable quantity.”
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Michael has been a PCMag reporter since October 2017. He covers a wide variety of news topics, including consumer devices, the PC industry, cybersecurity, online communities, and gaming. Please send him tips.
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