An Israeli citizen was arrested by customs officials on suspicion of smuggling 100 iPhone 4S smart phones. The phones in the local marketplace are worth 400,000 NIS. The person in custody should have paid 120,000 NIS in taxes, but tried to bring them into the country without being detected. The suspect, whose name is on file, was released by the Ramle Magistrate’s Court with restrictions.

The suspect, M.K., arrived on Sunday, 7 Iyar 5772 and had to pick up five cartons from the FedEx counter. He was asked to provide a power of attorney from the people whose names appear on the cartons. He returned to pick them up, the cartons marked “books” armed with the power of attorney from those people whose name appeared on the cartons, apparently family members.

The boxes were tagged that a customs agent requested to be present when they are turned over to enable them to inspect them. An agent opened one box and found 20 of the smart phones, not books. The suspect then provided customs agents with the name of a person working with him in the United States. Klein explained that his partner, who lives in the states, asked him for the names and addresses of people he can use to send the cartons of “books”. MK furnished the names and addresses without obtaining permission from the people whose names appeared on the cartons. Customs agents quickly learned the power of attorney forms were forged by MK too.

Adding to MK’s woes is the fact that during questioning, he admitted to smuggling in phones at least 20 times during the past two months, using the same method to bypass customs.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)