Chinese-made 'AirPods' Counterfeit Goods Smuggling and Sales Operator Arrested

Vietnamese operators who imported counterfeit products such as AirPods produced in China into the country and distributed them in the market were caught by customs authorities.

On the 21st, the Busan Customs Office of the Korea Customs Service announced that it arrested Vietnamese national A (in their 20s) and delivery worker B (in their 50s) on charges of violating the Customs Act and Trademark Act, and sent them to the prosecution without detention.

According to Busan Customs, A and others are suspected of smuggling and distributing over 20,000 earphones, including Chinese-made AirPods, with a market value of approximately 3.8 billion KRW.

They smuggled counterfeit products by disguising commercial goods as for personal use, using multiple names and addresses.

During the investigation after detecting A’s smuggling activities, Busan Customs searched A’s secret warehouse and seized 1,908 counterfeit Chinese earphones and many other smuggled items.

The investigation revealed that A borrowed or stole the identities of 26 people to evade customs surveillance while smuggling counterfeit earphones for sale. Among them were B, B’s family and relatives, and numerous identities that B had unlawfully used.

Provided by Korea Customs Service

It was revealed that A established a corporation under A’s name in the country around August last year to sell and distribute smuggled goods and prepared a secret warehouse (126㎡) in a residential area of Changwon, Gyeongnam, for storing smuggled goods.

B actively participated in the crime by providing A with his own, his family’s, and many unlawfully used identities, receiving smuggled goods imported through overseas direct purchase at his residence, and transporting them to A’s secret warehouse.

In particular, it was confirmed that over the past two years, A purchased counterfeit earphones from Chinese internet shopping malls at about 3,000 KRW each, imported them into Korea, and sold them on SNS to foreigners residing in Korea and students at 35,000 KRW each, thereby illicitly profiting.

The items smuggled and sold by A were counterfeit but had model numbers, domestic contact information of the manufacturer, product serial numbers required for A/S, and certification numbers under the Radio Waves Act, all identical to genuine products.

A Busan Customs official stated, “We will continue to thoroughly crack down on smuggling of counterfeit goods disguised as overseas direct purchases and illegal acts involving identity theft.” He added, “Consumers are urged to report through the Korea Customs Service website if they confirm or suspect that their personal customs clearance codes have been stolen and to change their personal customs clearance codes.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.