Overflowing with games: During routine inspection of passengers at the Liantang Port in Shenzhen, China, customs agents noticed a woman that seemed unusually nervous. Upon closer inspection, they observed abnormal behavior and even thought her “look and attitude were not innocent.” The passenger was also well endowed – so much so that one customs official believed something was amiss. His instinct would prove accurate.
With suspicions raised, officials asked her to step out of line for a closer inspection. It did not take long for their hunch to be validated.
Agents soon discovered that the woman was attempting to smuggle 350 Nintendo Switch game cartridges into mainland China, hidden in her bra. At about $27.60 per cartridge, the total value works out to $9,660.
It is tough to say for certain due to the low quality of the photos from customs, but the haul mostly appears to be a mix of just a couple of different games. Can you make out any of the individual titles? Animal Crossing, perhaps?
We also do not know the motive behind the crime, well aside from money. Are certain games overly expensive in mainland China? Why not just opt for digital downloads? Are select titles banned outright?
Attempting to bring goods into or out of China without paying taxes on them is considered smuggling, just as it is in most countries. According to local law, the woman may have to pay a fine up to three times the amount of the duties that would originally been owed.
As absurd as it sounds, stories like this are commonplace in China. Last year, a smuggler tried to sneak 239 CPUs into the country by taping them to his body. Just a few months later, another smuggler was busted with 420 solid-state drives strapped to their person. And over the summer, smugglers tried again to evade import taxes by hiding 780 Intel processors inside a bus engine. One suspect even attempted to evade authorities by driving a truckload of goods through a category 4 typhoon.
